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[1/5]Rugby Union – Rugby World Cup 2023 – Group C – Australia v Portugal – Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Etienne, France – 1 October 2023 Portugal’s Thomas Appleton in action with Australia’s Lalakai Foketi Reuters/Paul Childs Obtaining licensing rights
LYON, France (Reuters) – Portugal coach Patrice Lajesque said that his team continues to surprise him with the level of play, but he fears that the physical abilities of the Fiji players will be greater than their capabilities in their final match in the World Cup early next week.
Portugal rattled Wales and Australia in their Group C matches with what Lajesquet calls an “all-out rugby” approach and were one miss away from beating Georgia only to settle for a draw.
“I’m still amazed at the quality of this team, which rises to all the challenges and is able to compete against teams like Wales and Australia,” Lajesquet told reporters on Monday.
“Even though we lost by a wide margin compared to the way the game went, these players are amazingly generous and talented. I don’t want this to stop. This group has unexpected resources.”
Portugal’s target when coming to Lagesque’s home country of France was to win, and to do that in Toulouse on Sunday, they will have to get past a Fiji team that has beaten Japan, England and Australia this year.
The team will be supported not only by its passionate fans, but also by the Wallabies, who need Portugal to beat Fiji and not allow the Pacific Islands an extra point to reach the quarter-finals.
Lajeskit said he could not look at Georgia’s match against Fiji, where Georgia led 9-0 in the first half but lost 17-12, as his Portuguese team’s basic plan.
“We don’t have the same quality as Georgia or the same DNA. We don’t yet have enough experience to dominate our game,” he said.
“On the other hand, we can take inspiration from their defensive quality, because they defended strongly and prevented Fiji’s strength from expressing itself.”
Portugal dominated large parts of Sunday’s match against Australia in Saint-Etienne, but lost 34-14 after conceding four attempts to the Wallabies striker and another to the huge Fijian-born winger, Marika Koroibete.
“My fear is somewhat unchanged from what it was before the Australia game,” Lajeske said of Sunday’s match.
“I’m afraid the physicality of the Fijians will exhaust us, we’ll end up collapsing, and it will be difficult to last 80 minutes.”
Reporting by Nick Mulvaney, Editing by Ken Ferris
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