Bryan Habana hails Antoine Dupont’s ‘massive call’ as he continues to break his ‘ceiling’

Legendary Springboks winger Bryan Habana has sung the praises of France star Antoine Dupont ahead of the sevens tournament at the Olympic Games in Paris and described him as being “box office”.

Despite sustaining a fractured cheekbone in France’s 2023 Rugby World Cup pool match against Namibia, Dupont continued playing during the rest of the tournament before the hosts were knocked out by eventual champions South Africa.

The 27-year-old scrum-half then skipped Les Bleus‘ 2024 Six Nations campaign as he embarked on a new sporting journey with his country’s national sevens side as they prepared for the Olympic Games in Paris.

Adapted quickly

Dupont, who was the 2021 World Rugby Player of the Year, did not take long to adapt to the shortened version of the game and helped France to walk off with the inaugural World Rugby SVNS series crown with victory over regular-season league winners Argentina in the grand final.

“Every Olympic cycle we’ve seen a few XV players try to make the transition,” Habana told the PA news agency.

“With Antoine it was probably an easier decision to make. The fact that there’s been an alignment in all the structures within France from Toulouse to the French federation has helped him.

“I ask myself why more French XV players haven’t done it – Damian Penaud and Gabin Villiere would be brilliant at the sport – but the fans are in for something special in Paris.

“Antoine is a guy that is absolutely box office in every way possible.

“It was a massive call to miss the Six Nations, but the seamlessness which he has made the transition has been absolutely brilliant.

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“We don’t know what a ceiling looks like for him yet because he continues to break through it.”

France have been drawn in the same pool as Fiji, who were crowned gold medallists at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and the action kicks off at the Stade de France on Wednesday – two days ahead of Olympics’ opening ceremony.

The men’s competition will reach its climax on Saturday with countries like Australia, Argentina and New Zealand expected to offer stiff competition to Les Bleus and Fiji.

Ireland have been boosted by the inclusion of star 15-a-side full-back but Great Britain, who walked off with the silver medal at the 2016 Olympics, will not be in action after they lost out to South Africa at repechage final in Monaco last month.

‘Exciting tournament’

Habana, who just missed out on sevens selection for his country Rio after changing codes, said: “It’s going to be such an exciting tournament.

“The alignment of rugby sevens with an Olympic format has definitely caused a massive sense of excitement on the field.

“Whether it’s South Africa, New Zealand, Fiji or the French, it’s been great for the game and just seeing the continual growth of sevens globally has been brilliant.

“I obviously fell short in going to Rio, mostly because of injury, but knowing that I had small part in helping the BlitzBoks go on to win a bronze medal there was pretty special.”

READ MORE: Antoine Dupont, Hugo Keenan and the other rugby stars pushing for Olympic Gold in Paris