Dazzling Fiji down France in Rugby Sevens opener

PARIS: Double Olympic champions Fiji showed again they are the team to beat in rugby sevens as they powered to a pulsating 19-12 win Thursday over the hosts at a packed Stade de France in Paris.

Despite boasting 15-a-side superstar Antoine Dupont in their ranks, France had litle answer to Fiji’s power, pace, bruising tackling and trademark flair.

Both teams were already into the quarterfinals, where France will meet Argentina and Fiji face Ireland.

To the delight of the sell-out crowd, Les Bleus opened the scoring, withstanding a wave of crunching Fijian defensive hits to send Aaron Grandidier Nkanang over the line.

But Fiji have never lost an Olympic rugby sevens match and hit back instantly, with some extraordinary offloads releasing captain “King” Jerry Tuwai for his first try of this tournament.

With the scores level at half time, Kaminieli Rasaku put the Fijians ahead early in the second half, seizing on a two-man overlap with a wellworked try in the corner.

French coach Jerome Daret had let the talismanic Dupont on the bench but deployed his playmaker with four minutes let, to a rapturous reception.

Despite several probing runs Dupont was unable to turn the tide and Joji Nasova touched down in the corner in the last minute to kill the match off as a contest.

Andy Timo scored a consolation try ater the buzzer for France.

“I love playing against Argentina. They have snatched a lot of wins, titles and medals away from us,” said French player Varian Pasquet.

“If we can get them out in the quarter-finals, it will be great... it’s going to be electric,” he told reporters.

Earlier, Australia topped pool B with a hardfought 22-14 win over Argentina. Australia used clever kicks into space to open up the Los Pumas defence and offloaded well out of contact.

Captain Nick Malouf finished off a well-worked move to dot down in the corner in the final minutes to kill off the challenge of Argentina.