France women's national rugby sevens team represents France in the Rugby Europe Women's Sevens, World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens and the

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. They are currently the 2023 European Champions; they were also champions in 2007 and 2015. France has competed in the Summer Olympics since its debut at the 2016 Rio Olympics and were silver medalists at the 2020 Games. They have been a core team in the Women's Sevens Series since the 2014–15 season. They have also competed in the Sevens World Cup since the inauguration of the women's tournament in 2009, and were silver medalists in

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History

Sevens World Cup

France competed in the inaugural Women's Sevens World Cup in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

in 2009. They finished at the top of their pool, despite losing to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in their opening game. They were eliminated by the

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in the Cup quarter-finals, without having scored a single point. They finally finished in seventh place after losing to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

in the Plate semi-finals.

Sevens Series debut

As the first edition of the Women's Sevens World Series commenced in the 2012–2013 season, France participated as an invitational team for two of the four tournaments.

2013 Sevens World Cup

In 2013, France took part in their second World Cup at the

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Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. They finished third in their pool behind

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, with Russia surprising England to win the last match of the group stage. In the Bowl finals, France dominated

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in the quarter-finals, before being eliminated by

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. They eventually finished in eleventh place overall.

Road to Rio

In order to qualify for the

Rio Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, where rugby was making its return, France had to win the 2015 Grand Prix with a best combined result of two tournaments. After failing in the first stage in

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in the final against the Russians, the Les Bleues got their revenge in

Brive Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of ), commonly known as simply Brive, is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the agglome ...

in the final stage by beating

in the semi-final. They then won the final against

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and qualified for the

2016 Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

. Les Bleues started their first Olympic Games with victories against

and

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, but lost to

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and were placed second in their pool. They then lost in the quarter-finals of the medal play-offs against

, they met Spain again in the semi-final for fifth place and beat them. However, they lost to the

in the final and finished in sixth place.

2018 Sevens World Cup

They competed at the

2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens The 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens was the seventh edition of the Rugby World Cup Sevens. Organized by World Rugby, it was held at AT&T Park, now known as Oracle Park, in San Francisco, United States. A total of 84 matches were played over three d ...

, their qualification being determined by their placement in the

2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series The 2016–17 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series was the fifth edition of the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series (formerly the IRB Women's Sevens World Series), an annual series of tournaments organised by World Rugby for women's national teams in ...

. They went undefeated on their way to the final, even beating Olympic champions

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by 19–12 in the semi-finals, before succumbing to defending champions

in the finals, where they were defeated 29–0.

Tokyo Olympics

France qualified for the

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, after winning the Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in

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. They went undefeated until the gold medal final, where they lost to

by 26–12.

Tournament history

Summer Olympics

Rugby World Cup Sevens

Rugby X Tournament

Women's Sevens Series

Players

Current squad

Squad named for the 2023 World Rugby HSBC Sevens Series in Vancouver from the 3–5 March. Caps updated to the latest date: 5 March 2023

Previous squads

Award winners

The following France Sevens players have been recognised at the

World Rugby Awards The World Rugby Awards are given out annually by World Rugby (until November 2014, known as the International Rugby Board), the worldwide governing body for rugby union, for major achievements in the sport. The idea of rewarding excellence in ru ...

since 2013:

References

External links

*
WorldRugby profile
{{National sports teams of France Women's national rugby sevens teams

Rugby sevens Rugby sevens (commonly known simply as sevens, and originally seven-a-side rugby) is a variant of rugby union in which teams are made up of seven players playing seven-minute halves, instead of the usual 15 players playing 40-minute halves. R ...

sevens

women A woman is an adult female human. Before adulthood, a female child or adolescent is referred to as a girl. Typically, women are of the female sex and inherit a pair of X chromosomes, one from each parent, and women with functional u ...

World Rugby Women's Sevens Series core teams