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Pro D2 top try scorer among 8 uncapped players in 42-man Portugal squad

Portugal Rugby squad stands on the field during Rugby Europe Championship match between Georgia and Portugal at Stade Jean Bouin on March 17, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Antonio Borga/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

Simon Mannix’s Portugal will head into the Autumn Nations Series with a couple of new additions, as CA Brive’s and Pro D2’s top try scorer, Lucas da Silva, is expected to make his debut for the Lobos.

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After years of rumours, the hooker will finally have a chance to break onto the international scene, building upon his impressive season start.

Da Silva’s contract with Brive will be up come June 2025, and with Stade Français, USA Perpignan and Provence lining up to place a bid, the possibility of playing for Portugal might raise his value amongst the Top 14 clubs.

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    The Autumn Nations Series will also mark scrum-half Samuel Marques’ return to Test match action, after missing out on the 2024 Men’s Rugby Europe Championship and July tour to Africa. The AS Béziers-Hérault star has already amassed a total of 99 points in this year’s Pro D2 and will feature in the game against Scotland.

    Trailblazers Simão Bento and Raffaele Storti will feature in both tests, with the former recovering from an injury that kept him out since early September. Bento scored two tries in Stade Montois’s loss against Provence in last weekend’s round of the Pro D2.

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    Francisco Fernandes (AS Béziers-Hérault, prop), Joris Moura (Valence Romans, fullback) and Rodrigo Marta (Colomiers, utility back) are the biggest absences in the squad, and won’t feature in any of the Tests. Marta played a key role for Portugal in the last four years but has sustained an injury and will be out for the next five weeks.

    Simon Mannix, who has been in charge of the Portuguese national team since May, was able to pick a star-studded squad and has in his sights on a potential win against the Eagles.

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    Portugal will first host the USA in Coimbra on November 9, before travelling to Scotland to face Gregor Townsend’s side at Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium on the 16th, twenty-six years after their first game against the Scots.

    Portugal squad
    Forwards
    David Costa
    Abel Da Cunha
    Diogo Hasse Ferreira
    António Machado Santos
    Márcio Pinheiro – uncapped
    António Prim
    Cody Thomas
    Luka Begic
    Lucas Da Silva – uncapped
    Santiago Lopes – uncapped
    Pedro Vicente
    Martim Belo
    Steevy Cerqueira
    António Rebelo de Andrade
    José Rebelo de Andrade
    Duarte Torgal
    Vasco Baptista
    Frederico Couto
    André Cunha
    João Granate
    José Madeira
    Nicolas Martins
    Diego Pinheiro Ruiz

    Backs
    Hugo Camacho
    António Campos – uncapped
    Enzo Lopes – uncapped
    Pedro Lucas
    Samuel Marques
    Hugo Aubry
    Domingos Cabral
    Manuel Vareiro
    Tomás Appleton
    Gabriel Aviragnet – uncapped
    Vasco Leite – uncapped
    José Lima
    Fábio Conceição
    Lucas Martins
    José Paiva Dos Santos
    Sebastião Stilwell – uncapped
    Raffaele Storti
    Simão Bento
    Manuel Cardoso Pinto

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    J
    JW 15 minutes ago
    Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

    It is now 22 years since Michael Lewis published his groundbreaking treatise on winning against the odds

    I’ve never bothered looking at it, though I have seen a move with Clint as a scout/producer. I’ve always just figured it was basic stuff for the age of statistics, is that right?

    Following the Moneyball credo, the tailor has to cut his cloth to the material available

    This is actually a great example of what I’m thinking of. This concept has abosolutely nothing to do with Moneyball, it is simple being able to realise how skillsets tie together and which ones are really revelant.


    It sounds to me now like “moneyball” was just a necessity, it was like scienctest needing to come up with some random experiment to make all the other world scholars believe that Earth was round. The American sporting scene is very unique, I can totally imagine one of it’s problems is rich old owners not wanting to move with the times and understand how the game has changed. Some sort of mesiah was needed to convert the faithful.


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