France captain Antoine Dupont is making a switch to the 7s code and will miss the 2024 Six Nations to focus on next year’s Olympics in Paris.
Dupont will join up with France’s sevens squad in January after an agreement was reached between the player, his club - Stade Toulousain - and the Fédération Française de Rugby.
The 27-year-old is set to feature in the SVNS events in Vancouver, Canada on February 23-24 and Los Angeles on March 2-3 which will rule him out of participating in the 15-a-side championship.
Should Dupont earn selection for the 2024 Olympics - which is not certain, according to an FFR source - France’s talisman would have been missing from the international rugby scene for over 12 months, leaving head coach Fabien Galthie to find a new captain and scrum-half for the Six Nations and the summer tour to Argentina.
Also on Wednesday, Rugby Australia confirmed that Michael Hooper would mimic Dupont’s path, with the Wallabies legend linking up with his country’s sevens side in January.
Hooper, who has 125 caps for Australia – 69 as captain – was omitted from Eddie Jones’s squad for the World Cup, which saw the Wallabies crash out in the pool stages for the first time.
The 32-year-old is hopeful of representing Australia in the inaugural Perth SVNS event in January and earning selection to the 2024 Olympics.
Source: Stuff.co
