Rugby sevens needs more big-name fifteens players competing on the Olympic stage, writes SIMON BORCHARDT.

Rugby is a team game but an individual can make all the difference. Just ask the France Sevens team, serial underachievers on the World Rugby Sevens Series circuit for 25 years until winning it last season, and now Olympic champions.

There is little doubt that Les Bleus would not have won gold had Antoine Dupont not decided to skip this year’s Six Nations and target Olympic glory.

The star scrumhalf, regarded by many as the world’s best fifteens player, featured in two Sevens Series tournaments in February and March, which allowed him to be integrated into the squad and selected for the Olympics. His impact was immediate, with France finishing third in Vancouver and then winning in Los Angeles – their first Sevens Series tournament title in 19 years.

Dupont was effectively used as a super-sub throughout France’s Olympic campaign, no more so than in the gold-medal match against Fiji, when he came on at half-time with the teams locked at 7-7.

With his first touch of the ball, he took off on a 70m run down the left touchline before putting Aaron Grandidier Nkanang away for a game-breaking try. Dupont then scored two himself – the first from a quick penalty tap that caught the Fijian defence off guard and the second from the back of a lineout maul in the final play of the game.

Dupont was just as influential in France’s quarter-final against Argentina and semi-final against the Blitzboks, with his first action in the latter a lineout throw that underlined his all-round skill set.

While watching Dupont light up Paris, I couldn’t help but wonder how much better the Blitzboks would have been if they’d been able to pick a player like Cheslin Kolbe, Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie, Kwagga Smith, Hacjivah Dayimani or Evan Roos. Kolbe, Arendse and Smith have played for the Blitzboks before, while you’d back the others to make a big impact in the abbreviated form of the game.

Of course, not all big-name fifteens players make it in sevens – the most recent example being Wallabies legend Michael Hooper’s failed attempt to earn selection for Australia’s Olympic squad – but when they do, like Dupont, they are both match winners and crowd pullers.

So it was encouraging to hear World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin express his desire to ‘de-conflict some parts’ of the rugby calendar to enable more fifteens stars to switch to sevens ahead of the Olympics.

This might be easier said than done, though. South Africa’s URC franchises are already without their Springboks for large parts of the season due to Test commitments and resting protocols, and would certainly not want to lose them for a couple of sevens tournaments, too. Overseas clubs also want to get bang for their Bok, and won’t easily release players on big salaries for sevens duty.

But hopefully World Rugby, national unions and clubs can make a plan to ensure that several fifteens stars are in LA for the 2028 Olympics. That would allow rugby sevens to capitalise on its coming-of-age moment in Paris and whet Americans’ appetite for the 2031 World Cup, which they will host.

OPINION: Dupont the greatest? Hold your GOATs!

Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images