Just a week removed from leading Stade Toulousain to their sixth Champions Cup title, Antoine Dupont has continued on in his search for silverware. The scrum-half maestro has added the 2024 HSBC SVNS title to his trophy cabinet, as France beat Argentina 19-5 in the Grand Final.
Hosted in the Spanish capital of Madrid, the 2024 HSBC SVNS Series came to a close with the dramatic weekend of finals action. France captain Pauline Riva said: “I’m very proud of the team today, especially the amazing young players. We had a big defence tonight. The atmosphere and our supporters were amazing tonight. We can feel the Olympics are arriving now.
Dupont was then presented with the Rookie of the Year Award, after having such a tremendous impact upon Les Bleus’ Sevens set-up. On the impact of Dupont, Riva added: “We think Antoine Dupont is the best player in the world and when he is on the pitch we have a lot of confidence and we are all very happy today.”
On receiving the HSBC SVNS Rookie of the Year award Dupont said: “I was honestly a bit worried before my first tournament, so I tried to work very hard to be ready for Vancouver and Los Angeles but there was a very good team spirit in the team so it was easy to join them.”
On excitement building for the Olympics Dupont added: “I hope it will be a huge tournament for us. Obviously we want to win, but we’re not the only team, so we have two months to work as hard as we can to be ready and to try and lift the trophy in July.”
France are full of confidence as they head into the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, with Dupont at the forefront of the push for gold medals. France ended their 19-year wait for a rugby sevens title in March, as they claimed the Los Angeles Sevens title following a final round triumph over Great Britain. This second title from the 2024 SVNS Series only amps up the expectation, for Dupont to win the gold medal in Paris, and right the home-soil wrongs that evaded him in the 2023 Rugby World Cup.