Thomas Sinicki, Media365: Published on Monday, March 18, 2024 at 1:13 p.m.
The Portuguese still have a long way to go, and they are building again after achieving the feat of beating Fiji (24-23) a few months ago during the World Cup.
Portugal had hoped to confirm their huge World Cup by winning the European Championship, a kind of second-tier Six Nations, on Sunday in Jean Bouin against Georgia. But as a regular, they won the title for the thirteenth time in fourteen editions (36-10). A great success for Richard Cockerill's players, who have just returned to the squad after leaving Montpellier in January: four tries against one, all in the second half, plus the four penalties already passed during the first half by Luca Matkava, author of sixteen points in total. “To be honest, we were not there, I regret it captain Thomas Appleton (on RMC Sport), it is difficult when there is such a gap, we were not able to raise our level or achieve what we worked on. We suffered from our mistakes”.
Mira: “We build for the future”
Winger Akaki Tabutsadze scored twice and the Portuguese had the flair to save honour two minutes from time, when they were trailing 36-3, just to cut the bill a little. And when it comes time to evaluate, they still managed to reach the final after an unexpected defeat in Belgium at the start of their group (10-6). Georgia and Portugal had already met in the first final in 2023, winning 38-11. Previous editions, like the big tournament, were played in a simple mini-tournament, without qualifying at the end. Also in the same group during the World Cup, the two teams later separated in a draw (18-18).
This year, after beating Romania, Belgium and Poland in the group stage (Spain, the Netherlands and Germany were in Georgia's group), Lobos had already suffered against Spain in the semi-finals (33-30), a win they also secured and finished third ahead of Romania (40-33), who remain the only country to have challenged Georgia's dominance with a title in 2017. Lusitanian coach João Meira, who took over from Patrice Laguesquet, sees “no real positives in the immediate future”. But he expands the scope: “They were better… We are building a team for the future, this is part of the process by which our group grows, other players will arrive and we will be stronger and stronger. He will be essential for the next match in June against the world champions in South Africa.
