Under the attentive eyes of the 11,000 fans that travelled to Coimbra, the Lobos fought until the bitter end against a team ranked 10th in the world ranking.

Article by: Rui Pedro Fernandes

The best part: a day that will live forever in the minds of Portuguese rugby fans: an excellent game from the Lobos that looked Japan in the eye and fought until the end. The (many) fans that supported the national team until the final whistle

The not-so-good part: Yamanaka’s try at the 80th minute that stopped history being made. Portugal was down by 5 and close to the Japanese try line, pushing for what would have been the winning try.

Player of the match: Japan’s full-back, Ryohei Yamanaka: consistently safe (especially under the ball), he propelled his team forward with great dynamic and scored the try that decided the match’s outcome. From Portugal’s side, it is difficult to highlight one single player: the Lobos exhibition was built on the group’s quality as a whole.

The sunset was lending the sky lavender tones, in a sharp contrast to the black capes with which the city’s students welcomed both teams to Coimbra, in a warm November day.  

The Portuguese national team faced Japan, ranked 10^th in the World Ranking, and those who travelled to Coimbra didn’t feel like they had wasted their time. 11,000 people constantly cheered for the Lobos, who hadn’t face a Tier 1 team since 2007’s World Cup in France. Those who thought that the Portuguese side was going to get trampled were completely wrong.

Japan started the game with a lot of confidence and scored at the 3rd minute mark when the winger Siosaia Fifita scored a try in a clever offensive movement that started on the fly half Rikiya Matsuda’s foot, following a line out..

Portugal put the first points on the board through a penalty converted by the scrum-half Samuel Marques (16th minute) and scored again on the 22^nd minute: Samuel Marques did a “tap and go” after another Japanese penalty and darting through the Japanese defence, assisted José Lima for the fist Portuguese try. Portugal 8, Japan 5.

Japan then went forward and scored several penalties (26^th, 31^st, 35^th minutes) through the boot of Matsuda.

Samuel Marques, again, scored another penalty at the 37^th minute but the first half ended with Japan’s second try. Centre Shogo Naguno pierced through the Portuguese defense and scored a try, putting the score at 11-21. There were doubts in the stadium about the legality of the try as there seemed to have been a forward pass in its build-up but referee Andrew Brace, thoughg the TMO considered that everything was legal.

The second part started with Japan’s captain Michael Leich getting a yellow card, following a high tackle. Portugal took advantage of that and pressured Japan, kicking for the corner in successive occasions instead of kicking to the posts. The strategy paid up when the hooker Mike Tadjer scored Portugal’s second try following a maul. Important to refer the excellent work carried out throughout the whole match by the Portuguese forwards, sometimes outperforming the Japanise pack.

Japan scored again following a Portuguese mistake: line-out for the Lobos that the Brave Blossoms stole with the hooker Kosuke Horikoshi gaining several metres on the pitch before passing to the flanker Kazuki Himeno for him to score the try line. The Lobos didn’t give up and following several “pick and go” on the Japanese 5m line, the blindside flanker João Granate scored, moving the scoreboard to 25-28.

Matsuda scored another penalty (62^nd minute) and at the 76^th minute Isilei Nakjim received a yellow card following a high tackle on the Portuguese full-back Manuel Cardoso Pinto, leaving the Brave Blossoms down to 14 men for the last minutes of the match

With the scoreboard showing 25-31 for the visitors, Portugal believed that they could score one more try and make history in Coimbra. On the 78^th minute, Cardoso Pinto passed to the winger Rodrigo Marta that tried to find space using his boot. A knock-on from the Japanese defense created the opportunity for a 5m scrum that the Portuguese failed to take advantage of.

Portugal kept pressuring the Japanese defence until Ryohei Yamanaka intercepted a pass from the Portuguese fly half Jeronimo Portela and scored the final try of the match (25-38).

Despite the defeat, the fans in Coimbra had the privilege of watching a great rugby match, with the Lobos showing why they deserve to be in the World Cup in 2023. This match’s attendance showed that rugby is a growing sport in Portugal and that it has the potential to be much bigger than it already is.