Paris Olympics: France flatter to deceive, as Fiji show sevens gold potential once more

France booked their place in Thursday’s Olympic rugby sevens knockout phase, but struggled to live up to their pre-tournament favourites tag while powerhouse Fiji showed they will take some beating.

Les Bleus came into the sevens competition on a high, boosted by the presence of Antoine Dupont, viewed by many as the world’s greatest player in the 15-a-side code.

But a shock 12-12 draw against the United States in their first Pool C encounter on Wednesday was followed by a nail-biting 19-12 win over Uruguay that was anything but convincing.

Dupont received the biggest cheer of the night when he doggedly shrugged off the attentions of the Uruguay defence to sprint half the length of the pitch for a try.

In a see-saw match, France took the lead only for Uruguay to peg them back, a burst of pace from Jefferson-Lee Joseph finally breaking the deadlock to the collective relief of the sold-out 69,000 crowd.

“If we don’t raise our level, we won’t go very far. We know that and we’re capable of doing much better,” Dupont said. “We didn’t put ourselves in a good place once again. We struggled to impose our game plan, to keep the ball.”