‘Beautiful to watch’ Olympic Sevens sets social media ablaze and compared to Rugby World Cup

David Skippers
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France and Ireland players Olympics image.jpg

France players celebrate their Olympics Sevens quarter-final win over Argentina while their Ireland counterparts are dejected after their loss to Fiji.

The Sevens Rugby tournament at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is proving to be a massive success as spectators have flocked in their numbers to the Stade de France.

According to World Rugby’s official website, a record-breaking crowd of 69,000 fans attended the opening day’s action and that number was increased on Thursday when “a single-day attendance record of more than 130,000 fans was set at a packed Stade de France across two competition sessions to witness the speed, skill and all action entertainment of sevens at its best as the men’s semi-finalists were decided.”

Positive reaction

There has been plenty of positive reaction on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter after Thursday’s thrilling action.

France advanced to the semi-finals after beating pre-tournament favourites Argentina with star player Antoine Dupont clinching their win with a late try.

And after the French hosted a successful Rugby World Cup last year, there were the inevitable comparisons between that event and the Olympics with popular YouTube analyst Squidge Rugby saying: “They really went hey, remember that time we did the best weekend of rugby ever, what if we did that again but squeezed it down to one Thursday evening.”

After a forgetful opening day, in which they suffered losses against New Zealand and Ireland, South Africa came storming back on Thursday and sealed a big win over Japan which saw them qualifying for the quarter-finals as one of the best third-place finishers in the respective pools.

The Blitzboks then gained revenge against the All Blacks Sevens in their last eight clash to the delight of Brandon Portnoy, who wrote: “Yesterday we were going home before the opening ceremony. Today we are one match away from gold. Never write off South Africa and the Blitzboks! Unreal defence, that was just beautiful to watch.”

Olympic Rugby Sevens: All the men’s fixtures ahead of the final push for medals in Paris

That led to another World Cup comparison – after South Africa beat New Zealand – from Global News Network, who said: “At last years Rugby World Cup 1 was the “magic figure. Thus far at the Olympics with the 7’s 5 seems to be the “consolation figure.”

Meanwhile, just like all their previous appearances at the Rugby World Cup, Ireland were knocked out in the quarter-finals – when they lost to Fiji – which led to the Scrumming Flyhalf coming up with this beauty.

More quarter-final misery

And Squidge Rugby couldn’t resist having a dig at the men from the Emerald Isle with another Rugby World Cup comparison when he wrote: “Ireland playing endless phases in overtime of a quarter-final at the Stade de France before coming up short against a Pacific nation, where have I seen that before.”

While Captain Springbok believes All Blacks legend Dan Carter’s presence at the Olympics played a role in the New Zealand sevens side’s demise. He wrote: “The Dan Carter curse strikes again!”

READ MORE: Israel Dagg hails ‘absolute freak’ Antoine Dupont and offers theory for All Blacks Sevens’ lack of XVs stars

France Olympics Rugby Sevens