by Ben Ayuko
contact info: benayuko@gmail.com
{image by GettyImages}
The France Rugby 7s team achieved the Olympic dream to end all Olympic dreams when they beat an unbeatable Fiji team to become the Olympic Champions.
France took on a Fiji team that was yet to lose an Olympic game since the 7s event was introduced as an Olympic Sport in 2016. The Fijians, known for their high-octane, ball juggling, non-stop action style of play, were the Goliath to France’s David as France looked to overcome this monster of a huddle and earn the ultimate prize in front of their home crowd support. Add onto this the fact that the two sides had already met earlier in the tournament with Fiji coming out on top. France needed to be at the very top of their game in order to prevail.
It’s literally the stuff dreams are made of.
It was therefore a shock to everybody in the stadium when Fiji took the lead one minute into proceedings after a try by Joseva Talacolo.
France was up against it and, to their credit, took the game right back to Fiji. They worked the Fijian defense until a gap opened up for Jefferson Lee-Jospeh to take advantage of, levelling the score. 7-7 into the break.
Now, big games call for big moments from big people.
The first of these people was France head coach, Jerome Daret. He opted to bench one of his star players looking to introduce him into the game strategically.
The player in question, Antoine Dupont, is the second of these people.
His introduction immediately swung the game in the favour of the French team. They were like a whole new team once he stepped onto the pitch. His running, his passing, his vision, his smart plays…everything he did had a touch of Midas to it.
By the end of the game, Dupont had scored 2 tries and assisted a 3rd to give Team France the victory, and subsequently, the gold medal.
Fiji had to settle for silver after suffering their first ever Olympic defeat, while South Africa overcame Australia to claim the bronze.
Elsewhere, Kenya put in 2 impressive showings: first against Uruguay, then against Samoa- whom they had faced in the opening rounds- to claim 9th place out of 12 in the Olympics series. This was thanks to tries scored by Patrick Odongo, Antony Mboya, Samuel Asati and John Okeyo (3).
It was just a consolation victory, but after taking 3 back-to-back losses, it was a very welcome end to the tournament as the Shujaas left Paris with their heads held high.