Rugby Europe Trophy 2022/2023
Portugal beats Belgium (5-71) to kick-start this season’s edition of the Women’ Rugby Europe Trophy.
Written by: Nuno Madeira do O
The best part: Portugal played a delicious rugby. Besides having a lethal offence that scored 11 tries, its defence didn’t give Belgium a chance. Portugal was dominant on every scrum and use them as a platform to launch several attacks. On top of it, we had the usual pace, speed, offloads, and emotion. It is a genuine pleasure to watch Portugal play.
The not-so-good part: During the first 10 minutes of the match, Portugal made some handling mistakes and conceded some penalties. Fortunately, Belgium couldn’t capitalise on these mistakes but, against a stronger team, they could have led to Portugal going through a tough time.
Player of the match: It was very difficult to pick the player of the match. The midfield partnership Maria João Costa-Mariana Marques was absolutely brilliant, both in offence and defence. Daniela Correia, on top of being on point with the kicking, caused a lot of headaches to the Belgian defence and scored a try. Sara Moreira scored a brace and moved Portugal’s offence forward. However, Linha de Ensaio chose Neuza Reis as the player of the match. The Portuguese loosehead was an authentic grinder in scrums, winning penalty after penalty and turning each one of them into a dangerous opportunity for Portugal. She was almost unplayable during “pick and go’s” and scored a try. A true giant.
Six months have gone by since we last saw Portugal play and what they had done against Belgium (10-8) and Germany (57-0) had left the indication that there were a lot of good things to come. Fortunately, João Moura’s players didn’t disappoint.
However, despite the difference that the scoreboard showed, not all went well for Portugal. Belgium started the match on top and dominated the first 10 minutes of the match. Portugal seemed nervous and was making several handling mistakes that wouldn’t allow the team to control the match. On top of that, the ball was not being distributed well from the ruck and the approach to the breakdown didn’t have a lot of criteria, conceding several penalties. Fortunately, Belgium didn’t capitalise on that and Portugal finished that period unscathed.
With 15 minutes played, everything changed. Mariana Marques (a brilliant match from the Portuguese centre, constantly finding gaps in the Belgian defence) gained a lot of territory and put the game inside the Belgian 22. Through several phases, Portugal gained more territory until Sara Moreira crossed the try line. Daniela Correia added the extras and Portugal was ahead in the match (0-7).
This try destabilised the Belgian team and lost focus and became less dangerous with the ball. Taking advantage of this, Portugal put the pedal to the metal and scored four tries in 25 minutes: Neuza Reis (25 mins), Maria João Costa (28 mins), Daniela Correia (36 mins) and Sara Moreira (her second of the match, 40 mins) scored and send the teams to the changing rooms with the scoreboard showing 0-35.
The Belgian team returned to the pitch, motivated to change what happened in the first half and give the home fans some joy. At the 47th minute they found a gap in a caught-off-guard Portuguese line (coming out of a scrum) and scored on the right wing. Fans erupted with joy and the scoreboard moved to 5-35.
From that moment onwards, Portugal resumed its offensive bonanza: Maria João Costa (her second one, at the 50th minute), Beatriz Rodrigues (55 mins), Marta Magalhães (62 mins), Mariana Santos (66 mins), Yara Fonseca (70 mins), and Inês Spínola (80 mins) put their name in the game sheet and settled the final score at 5-71.
With this victory, Portugal tops the Rugby Europe Trophy, ahead of Finland, Germany, Belgium, and Czechia (that are still to play).
Portugal’s next match will be on the 4th February, in Lisbon, against Finland.
Linha de Ensaio spoke with Sara Moreira about the match:
In the first 20mins, Portugal had some difficulties, but we eventually scored 11 tries and won comfortably. What are your thoughts on this match?
First 20 minutes we had to work hard, it took time to get into the game. Belgium really fought hard and put pressure on us but we had to stay patient. Once we found our flow and trusted our process, we started scoring tries.
I think we have to give credit to our pack, we really dominated the game and carried the ball well. We also set a good platform with our set pieces, which allowed the backs to play.
It was great to kick off the competition with 11 tries and to come away with the whole 5 points.
Besides Belgium, Portugal will face Finland, Germany and Czechia. What can we expect from those matches?
This year will be the first time we face Finland and Czechia, so we don’t know much about them, so it will be about reviewing their games and identifying their strengths and areas that we will be able to exploit. I have no doubt that everyone wants to win this competition and that nothing will be given to us. We have to work hard to always keep progressing and getting better and do everything possible to win.
Regarding Germany, we played last year and came away with the win but I can imagine that they have been working hard over preseason and will be wanting to get the win this time around. They will also be playing at home which makes it more special, so even more of a reason to get the win.
Portugal had a great quality leap in the recent past. What do we need to be even better?
The regular training camps that we have had this season have been really beneficial to us. They have allowed for us to develop and bond as a team, enabling us to learn how each other play. There are always areas to improve so I’m sure we will be looking at these over the upcoming camps before we head into our next fixture.
When we aren’t together, it is important that we are all working hard both on and off the field, to not only get fitter and stronger but to remain physically ready, in order to hit the ground running and pick things up where we left off.
