First match for Portugal in the Rugby Europe Championship 2023 crowned with a victory over Belgium (54-17).
Written by: Rui Neto Fernandes.
The best part: Without a great performance, Portugal got a good victory against Belgium, mostly because of the explosive rhythm of their backs that created several dangerous chanced. The forwards also played well, thwarting the physical style of the Belgian team.
The not-so-good part: The final minutes of the first half where Portugal (that had already scored four tries at this point) lower the intensity and allowed Belgium to score 10 points, mostly due to their own mistakes.
Player of the match: Rodrigo Marta. The Portuguese winger is having a great season at US Dax and showed his quality once again. He took advantage of the several gaps in the Belgian defence, scored a try and had several line breaks that made things very difficult for the visitors.
The new Rugby Europe Championship grew in size and now has 8 teams, with Germany and Belgium taking the added two spots and with Poland replacing Russia that is still banned form international sports. This means that there are two groups of fours teams with the top two teams going through to the semi-finals. It was predicted that this model would have more mismatches which was the case on Saturday evening with Portugal showing that is in a much higher level than their opponents.
Because of the new format, Patrice Lagisquet prepared the team differently, and left out some of the most experienced players like Mike Tadjer and Francisco Fernandes (first row), Steevy Cerqueira (second row), and Samuel Marques (scrum-half). Rafaelle Storti picked up an injury was also out. However, the 23 called for the match performed well and won the match even without playing at a very high tempo.
The Belgian defence only lasted 5 minutes. Rodrigo Marta opened a gap, passed to the Centre José Lima and he assisted Vincent Pinto for the first try. Another five minutes of play and another try with the same protagonists: Lima assisting Rodrigo Marta on the blindside and try for Portugal (14-0).
Another 5 minutes of play and another Portuguese try. Disastrous exit from the ruck from Belgium inside their own 22 with Nicolas Martins grabbing the ball and scoring. Nuno Sousa Guedes converted again and it was beginning to look light a long evening for the visitors.
Belgium try to attack through a more physical game but their attempts were met with a solid performance from the Portuguese pack with José Madeira and João Granate forcing the Belgians to several mistakes in the breakdown. Behind them, the Portuguese backs were creating all sorts of mischief every time they decided to speed things up – it really is a luxury to have a back three made of Marta-Sousa Guedes-Pinto – and still leave Storti or Manuel Cardoso Pinto out. At the 20th minute, José Lima scored Portugal’s fourth try, after an assist from Nuno Sousa Guedes.
When everyone thought that Portugal was going to carry on attacking, the Lobos slowed down and made a few mistakes that allowed Belgium to get on the scoreboard. First through a penalty scored by Florian Remue and then by a try scored by Andre Victor.
At the break, Portugal was winning 26-10.
The second half brought a Portuguese team willing to score more and at the 45th minute Rodrigo Marta escaped two tackles and assisted João Belo for a try under the posts. Four minutes later, Pedro Lucas that had replaced Belo, assisted Nuno Sousa Guedes for another try. A few minutes later, Pedro Lucas was again on the spotlight and scored Portugal’s 6th try.
Lionel Campergue scored Portugal’s last try following a driving maul. Belgium scored with 10 minutes to go by Hugo de Francq and set the score for the day: Portugal 54, Belgium 17.
Next round will see Portugal travelling to Poland before hosting Romania in what will most likely be the match to decide who grabs the top spot on the way to the Rugby Europe Championship final.
