The French men’s rugby 7 team won the gold medal this Saturday at the Olympic Games in Paris (France), thanks to their victory in the grand final by 28-7 against the Fiji teamwhile the South African team won bronze after beating the Australian team 26-19 in the consolation final.
At the Stade de France, Saint-Denis’ great temple to the sport of oval ballthe host delegation of these Olympic Games opened its gold medal tally precisely with rugbyIn this case it is the sevens, their Olympic modality, instead of the XV, but it did not matter as the local stands vibrated with the success of their compatriots.
Olympic Games Agenda
After having beaten in their semi-final by 5-19 to South Africathe ‘Bleus’ reached the title match. On the other side of the draw, Fiji had defeated Australia 31-7 in the other semi-final. And in the final duel for gold, it seemed that the Fijians were going to assert their dominance.
Not in vain, an essay by Joseva Talacolo and the subsequent conversion of Iowane Teba established the 0-7 on the scoreboard in just two minutesBut then a try from Jefferson-Lee Joseph and Rayan Rebbadj’s conversion sealed the equaliser before the break. (7-7).
In the second half of the match, France unleashed itself on the offensive side against the team that was the presumed favorite for goldand did so by offering the public the first gold medal of the host delegation at these Olympics; it was achieved after, among other good actions, a try by Paulin Riva and two other tries by Antoine Dupont.
Olympic Games medal table