Rugby World Cup stars set to make milestone appearances for Portugal

Two of the stars of Portugal’s 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign, Rodrigo Marta and Manuel Cardoso Pinto, are one match away from reaching a half-century of appearances for Os Lobos.

While they have both played 49 times for their country, one of those appearances was in an uncapped match against Argentina XV, so they may have to wait until Portugal’s second Nations Cup game against Samoa, on 14 November, to gain entry into the official 50-cap club.

Pau centre/wing Marta and full-back/wing Cardoso Pinto, who plays for Portuguese club Agronomy, have both been included in a squad that looks every bit as strong as the one that turned heads at the last World Cup.

Os Lobos became many people’s favourite second team at the tournament because of their attacking style of play, and Marta, who started all four games, and Pinto contributed massively to the cause.

It was Marta’s 78th-minute try that brought Portugal their first-ever World Cup victory in Toulouse, the 24-23 win over a shell-shocked Fiji.

Once the tournament was over, Patrice Lagisquet left his role as head coach, and after a period of instability, the rebuild under Simon Mannix is going well.

Earlier this year, Portugal won the Rugby Europe Championship title for only the second time in history, and have only lost one of their last 10 matches.

After the first phase of the tournament in July, Os Lobos are second to Georgia in Pool B of the Nations Cup, and big things are expected of them with the likes of Marta, Pinto, free-scoring winger Raffaele Storti and the Martins brothers, Nicolas and Lucas, on board, when it resumes a week on Saturday.

In addition to this experienced core, which includes World Cup captain Tomás Appleton, Mannix has selected three uncapped players – South African-born hooker Jason Cornelius, ex-Australia 7s international Jordan Lee Bacon and prop Alex Dos Santos. Bacon was a member of the Nations Cup squad in July but did not feature in any of the games.

Mannix’s side face Chile on the opening weekend in November, before taking on Samoa and then Uruguay on consecutive Saturdays, and has the advantage of playing all their fixtures on home soil in Lisbon.

Portugal were edged out by USA in their first match of the Nations Cup in July but bounced back to beat Canada and Tonga.

Portugal’s November Nations Cup squad:

Props
Cody Lee Thomas (Grenoble)
Pedro Vicente (Agronomy)
Diogo Hasse Ferreira (Dax)
Antonio Prim (Law)
Abel Da Cunha
Alex Dos Santos (Albi)
Giorgi Turabelidze (VRAC)

Hookers
Luka Begic (Biarritz)
Santiago Lopes (Cascais)
Nuno Mascarenhas (Cascais)
Jason Cornelius (Benfica)

Locks
Duarte Torgal (Law)
Martim Bello (Cascais)
Duarte Nunes (Law)
Pedro Ferreira (Law)
Antonio Andrade (Agronomy)
José Madeira (Perpignan)

Back row
Nicolas Martins (Racing)
Andre Da Cunha (Belenenses)
José Monteiro (CDUL)
João Granate (Law)
David Wallis (Belenenses)
Francisco Almeida (Benfica)

Scrum-halves
Samuel Marques (Carcassonne)
Hugo Camacho (Albi)
Tomás Amado (Agronomy)

Fly-halves
Domingos Cabral (Agronomy)
Hugo Aubry

Centres
Vasco Durão (Cascais)
Tomás Appleton (CDUL)
Rodrigo Marta (Pau)
Jordan Lee Bacon

Wing/Full-back
Vincent Pinto (Colomiers)
Raffaele Storti (Grenoble)
Simão Bento (Colomiers)
Manuel Cardoso Pinto (Agronomy)
Manuel Vareiro (Provence Rugby)
Joris Moura (VRDR)
Lucas Martins (Agen)