Paris 2024 - Rugby Sevens

Cheap eh?

France captain Antoine Dupont has vowed to make "sacrifices" in pursuit of his dream of playing at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Dupont, 27, captained France in a home World Cup quarter-final defeat in the XVs game in October, but will focus on the World Rugby Sevens Series in 2024. He won the 2022 Six Nations Grand Slam but is set to miss next year's edition to prepare for the Olympics. "Competing for an Olympic medal is really motivating," Dupont told Canal+. Speaking after being named the Top 14's player of the season he added: "It's been a while that discussions have been under way for me to be made available for this [Olympic] team. "We'll have to adjust things. I won't be able to play all the matches every weekend until the end of the season. Sacrifices will have to be made to be able to spend time with the team." The scrum-half, named player of the Six Nations in 2020, 2022 and 2023, told French media last year he has a "desire" to participate at the Olympics. The Toulouse player will join the sevens squad in January before tournaments in Canada and Los Angeles.

Antoine Dupont is set to make his eagerly anticipated sevens debut on Friday after being named in France's squad for the Vancouver SVNS event. Rugby union's star player has left behind the Six Nations in a bid to win a medal at his home Olympic Games in Paris this summer. The 27-year-old scrum-half is not the first to attempt the switch from XVs to sevens. In 2016, three stars of XVs rugby - Sonny Bill Williams, Quade Cooper and Bryan Habana - embarked on Mission: Olympic Sevens. Australia star Cooper and South Africa winger Habana were not even selected by their countries, while Williams' campaign ended in misery when he was injured in New Zealand's first match in Rio. So why can it be difficult to make the switch and how might Dupont succeed where others have failed? Fitness and speed of play Played on a full-size pitch, a game of sevens lasts 14 minutes and includes the shortest of breaks for half-time. Unlike XVs there are few stoppages in play. The pace is relentless. Former Saracens centre and USA international Chris Wyles had to make a rapid readjustment before he played at the Rio Olympics. While his club team-mates celebrated a European and Premiership double, Wyles spent the next few weeks getting fit for sevens. It meant running - lots of running. "I am not going to lie, it was a tough two, three months coming from XVs without any summer tournaments," Wyles told BBC Sport. "Not the technical side of things, it is definitely just the fitness - the speed of play and the amount of metres ran in training." Dupont opting out of the Six Nations demonstrates the Frenchman's desire to make the 12-man Olympic squad. "It shows how seriously he is taking it. More than that, it is a sign for the players in the squad currently that he is sacrificing things to try and make this squad," Wyles said. "In order to promote the right culture in the team he is deciding to sacrifice quite a bit, which is a bold decision." 'Dupont's high rugby IQ' will help him adapt With only three forwards on the pitch and wide-open spaces to attack, the three-time Six Nations player of the championship must learn a different style of rugby. "The challenge with sevens is that you have to be able to do it all," former England and Great Britain sevens captain Tom Mitchell told BBC Sport. "Everyone has to hit rucks and everyone has to be able to defend one-on-one in quite a lot of space. For me, those are the bigger challenges. "Dupont is one of the most well-rounded players in his position with his ability to be strong in the contact area and with some of his tackling." Scrum-half is Dupont's logical sevens position, but Mitchell says the hosts could play him at hooker to get "another ball-player on the park". His "special ability" to use his body in the contact area and his talent to see space and execute at a high tempo makes him a scary sevens prospect. "He is probably going to go better than any other convert that we have ever seen before," the silver medallist at the Rio Olympics added. "Someone like Dupont, who has a high rugby IQ, will not struggle to pick it up but there are different scenarios that he will encounter on a sevens field that he won't in XVs."

That's amazing - if you'd asked a bookie for odds 4 months ago on these 4 being the SF teams for any world series event this year, they'd have been long I imagine?

See these games are watchable online via Rugby Pass TV at 10.08pm and 10.30pm respectively tonight. The bad news for anyone wanting to stay up for the final is that it's at 2.23am! 

Ireland v France

New Zealand v Australia 

Placement matches and Quarter-finals tonight:

Placement matches:

7:00pm Samoa vs Japan

7:30pm Uruguay vs Kenya

Quarter-finals:

8:00pm New Zealand vs South Africa

8:30pm Argentina vs France

9:00pm Fiji vs Ireland

9:30pm Australia vs USA

Final matches (placement, semi-finals and medal matches) to be played on Saturday from 1:30pm.

2:30pm South Africa vs France

3:00pm Fiji vs Australia

6:00pm Bronze Medal Match

6:45pm Gold Medal Match

Ireland maintained their tournament consistency - losing at the quarter-final stage - whilst the Bok seem to be peaking at the right time having suffered close loses in their pool matches against Ireland and New Zealand.  Not bad for a team that only qualified last month.

I believe that the Beeb said that the bronze medal match would be shown live on BBC2 and the gold medal match live on BBC1.