Vakatawa's impactful Dubai

France's Virimi Vakatawa returns to the French Sevens side at the HSBC Dubai Sevens in sensational form, winning the first-ever DHL Impact Player Award for the Dubai round.

Although he missed the end of last season through injury, Virimi Vakatawa returned to the pitch with immediate impact. With his 10 tackles, five line breaks, 19 carries and seven offloads, the powerful Frenchman had a hand in all things good about France as they lifted the Bowl on day two of the opening round on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Every time I get the ball I just want to run and score tries. Attacking is my favorite part of the game.

Virimi Vakatawa

And after his enthralling performances, he has been named the first-ever DHL Impact Player of the Tournament for Dubai, an honor that is no wonder with this attitude.

“Personally I love to run with the ball,” he said. “Every time I get the ball I just want to run and score tries. Attacking is my favorite part of the game.

“But I am happy to be back in the side, and to have played in Dubai. It’s good to be back as I didn’t finish last season after getting injured in Japan.”

Raising the Bowl
France finished Dubai with the Bowl and lost just one match across the weekend to New Zealand. Having beaten USA on day one they were seconds away from making the quarter-finals before Perry Baker struck late to clinch USA's first-ever win over Sir Gordon Tietjens' side. In doing so, they also knocked France out of the Cup on points difference (two points) - Madison Hughes' conversion proving the difference.

“The tournament was very tough,” added Vakatawa on arrival in Cape Town. “Every team had trained hard and it was difficult to start. We played New Zealand early on which was difficult but we improved as we went on. I think that having Rio as the target will make the teams play better.

“I think we played well though, we played together and worked together as a team and you can see that with the outcome. We won five games out of six and only losing to New Zealand. We have been working hard and managed to stick together in the hot conditions.

More work to do
“We need to work more on our attack as every time we run with the ball, we didn’t always score tries. We got about five meters out a lot and didn’t score tries. We need to work on our attack.”

We are excited to play again against New Zealand as they are the best team in the world.

Virimi Vakatawa

France have plenty to be pleased about, and work on, ahead of the HSBC Cape Town Sevens. As well as Vakatawa being named the Impact Player of the tournament, teammates Jonathan Laugel and Terry Bouhraoua also had impressive campaigns.

Laugel made 21 tackles in Dubai, more than any other player, and captain Bouhraoua scored the most tries (eight) and points (74) and made more line breaks than anyone else at The Sevens Stadium - so plenty to be happy about. France also have an immediate chance for revenge against New Zealand in Cape Town having been drawn alongside them, Samoa and Canada this weekend.

“We are excited to play again against New Zealand as they are the best team in the world,” explained Vakatawa, “We are lucky to play against them again and we will be preparing hard this week so we can give them a good game this Saturday.”

DHL Impact Player Award
As a global logistics leader, our business has a great impact on global trade and industry. As the Official Logistics Partner of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, we we’d like to celebrate and recognize the efforts of those players that make a great impact on the sevens pitch. The DHL Impact Player Award is awarded to the player whose performances have made the most telling impact on matches at each Tournament and throughout the entire 2015-16 Series.

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