19 year-old winger for Belenenses Rugby and for Portugal.

Linha de Ensaio had the pleasure of talking with Xavier Madureira.

How old were you when you started playing rugby? How did it happen?

I started playing when I was 7 years old. At the time, I used to practice swimming, but I wasn’t really enjoying it. I asked my parents if I could play football instead, but they said that it was very competitive and that the environment around it wasn’t very good. At the same time, one of my cousins was playing rugby for Belenenses and he asked me if I wanted to go and give it a go. I really liked it and ended up staying.  

Did you know which clubs you had in your region, how was that process? When I started playing, there wasn’t a lot of people that I knew that played rugby. Apart from my cousin, I and one of my classmates also played for Belenenses but I didn’t know anyone else who played the sport. One of the things that I’ve noticed since I started playing (2009) is that rugby has grown quite a lot in popularity in Portugal and there are a lot more people playing these days which is excellent.

Do you want to be a professional player?

I do, that would be the ideal situation. However, I know how hard it is to reach that level and I’d also be happy to have a professional career in Sports Science (what I’m studying) and play rugby on the side.

How do you see the state of rugby in Portugal? Anything you’d like to see changing?

It’s very difficult not to compare it with what is considered the national sport in the country – football. I think that rugby is still very behind in terms of infrastructure and popularity. Even when I was in the national team bootcamp and we trained in our headquarters (Estádio Nacional, Jamor), the conditions were good but nothing compared to the City of Football (n.a. the National Football Team’s headquarters). We never had any “recovery programme”, for example, no cold chamber, no swimming pool…  

Was it the same at Belenenses Rugby?

It was similar though we had all the things we needed for training, there was a club bus to take us to away games and we didn’t have to worry about anything else.

Is there anything in particular that you’d like to see an improvement?

I think that it’s a shame that rugby at the University level is not at a very high level. If there was an evolution at this level, it would certainly help the Portuguese clubs and, consequently, the sport in the country.

What was your training schedule at Belenenses Rugby?

We trained three times/week: Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Monday, it used to be a recovering session, analysis of the weekend’s match and technical training. On Tuesday, we had our full-contact session, also focussed on endurance and cardio, as well as our collective defensive training. On Thursday, it was a lighter session where we focussed on individual skills, for example. On top of that, the club gave us a gym plan (three times a week).

Have you had a lot of injuries?

Yes, a few. The more serious ones were a few muscle tears on my thighs, a dislocated shoulder, a broken finger. Nothing too serious, fortunately.

Have you seen any evolution regarding people’s attitudes and opinions about rugby?

I think that the sport’s popularity has increased quite a lot and, as a consequence, there are more people watching rugby. A lot of people tell me that, even if they don’t know the rules, if there’s rugby on TV, they’ll watch it as they find it a very interesting sport.

Highlight of your career so far?

My first cap for Portugal against Spain.