Portugal's fallen heroes face very different reception
Having gone from beating Fiji to losing to Belgium, Portugal’s arrival in Lisbon today will feel very different to the heroes’ welcome they received back in October.
Daniel Hourcade’s reign in charge could not have got off to worse start than the 10-6 defeat in Mons in the opening round of the 2024 Rugby Europe Championship, which was broadcast live on RugbyPass TV.
To put it into context, there were eight places and nearly 13 points between Portugal and the higher-ranked Fiji in the World Rugby Men’s Rankings powered by Capgemini when they played each other at RWC 2023 compared to 16 places and just over 18 points between Os Lobos and lowly Belgium.
The Stade Charles Tondreau was bouncing as the unfancied Black Devils did just enough to hold off a disjointed Portugal whose poor handling was a far cry from the slick play everyone fell in love with in France, the belief in the crowd growing as the clock ticked down in a scoreless second half.
Rewind a few months and it was a very different story.
Portugal’s exploits at Rugby World Cup 2023 in France knocked football off the back pages, and even made it onto the front, and led to the squad meeting sporting royalty like Cristiano Ronaldo as guests of the Portuguese national football team for their game against Slovakia.
Captain Tomás Appleton and the rest of the squad were taken aback by the increased attention, but not in a negative way. The unassuming father-of-one sees it as their duty as ambassadors for a sport that needs all the publicity it can get to ride the wave of interest.
Speaking before the Belgium setback, he said: “I cannot forget the reception at the airport. We arrived and it was hard to get through all the people. There were thousands of kids around us asking for autographs, they were pulling me, and journalists and TV were pulling me, and all the time I could see my family and friends in the distance. I just wanted to be with them, but I couldn’t, not for a long time, but it was all good.”
Appleton cannot walk the streets or have a family meal in a restaurant without being stopped and asked for an autograph but, refreshingly, he doesn’t see this as a tiresome burden, but the opposite in fact.
As much as he is happy to receive the praise, he’s the type of character that will take yesterday’s result against Belgium on the chin.
“I think there are a few reasons why the fans really enjoy Portugal. Of course, we arrived at the World Cup as underdogs – no one expected us to win a game, we have a really attractive style of play, and with us being largely amateur players, it gives something for people to cheer on,” he remarked.
“At the end of the day, we do it for the passion and the love we have for our nation and the love we have for each other as friends. I think you can see that in the way that we play.
“The World Cup is one thing we are all really proud of so it would be impossible for the players not to give the love back to the fans.
“Even now, three or four months on, I still get recognised in the street and when eating out in restaurants. It is nice for people to recognise your efforts.
“I signed thousands of autographs at the World Cup, having signed hardly any before.
“The World Cup has made a massive difference, we have seen a lot more children starting to play rugby.
“It is very important for us in the national team to be inspirations for the kids.”
As a clean-cut figurehead of the Portuguese team, Appleton has understandably attracted lots of commercial interest, while a few professional clubs sounded him out about the prospect of him becoming full-time.
However, the 30-year-old with 66 caps and 16 Test tries to his name, is happy to continue to juggle the demands of work with rugby.
“I was in connection with agents but I did not receive any offer that would make me rethink my life and leave Portugal,” he revealed.
“I am not saying I would never do it but the offer has to really compensate me moving my wife and daughter for a new adventure.”
Appleton prefers to give back to the game rather than take, which is maybe why he specialises in implants rather than root canal surgery in his day-to-day job in dentistry.
Within two weeks of Portugal’s superb Rugby World Cup campaign coming to a close, Appleton was back treating patients at his clinic in Lisbon, but other than that, life has never been the same.
One difference other than the increased scrutiny is the make-up of the Portugal team. While around two-thirds of the Rugby World Cup squad remain in place, key figures like goal-kicking scum-half Samuel Marques and hooker and talisman Mike Tadjer have retired from Test rugby, and their cool heads and experience were badly missed on Saturday.
“We have a lot of challenges with this new group, with a lot of new players coming in, a lot of older players have decided to not play anymore so it is a renewal of the team with new staff,” said Appleton, shortly in the build-up to the Belgium match.
“Daniel Hourcade has come in as coach and he has so much experience, especially with Argentina, so we are really confident with what he is bringing to our team.”
In Saturday’s other game, the Netherlands had a kick to win the game at home to Spain but it went wide and they had to settle for a heroic 20-18 defeat instead.
Georgia begin their quest for a seventh consecutive Rugby Europe Championship title on Sunday, away to Germany, while Poland host Romania in the other match.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
31 Go to comments