A huge crowd gathered at Lisbon Airport, people of all ages jumping and dancing, mobile phones at arm’s length to commemorate the event, the national anthem being sung at the top of their lungs… Portuguese rugby players were welcomed as heroes as they returned home on Tuesday evening.
It was the least we could do to celebrate the victory of a half-amateur Portugal Wolves team over Fiji (24-23) at the end of a stunning match in Toulouse on Sunday.
The fate of the match was changed in the final moments thanks to a last-ditch effort from winger Rodrigo Marta in the 78th minute. This was the first victory in a Rugby World Cup tournament, and holds a lot of promise for the future of the sport in Portugal.
On the front page of the sports daily Abolla, rugby replaced football on Monday. The newspaper published a photo of the young volleyball player Jerónimo Portela, whose father, Miguel Portela, participated in the first Rugby World Cup in Portugal in 2007, which was actually organized in France.
“October 8, 2023 will remain forever engraved in the history of Portuguese sports,” wrote one of the editors of the newspaper “A Bola”. In Toulouse, the noble Wolves team exited the Rugby World Cup in the group stage, of course, but by defeating with dignity one of the eight teams that will compete in the quarter-finals of the competition. »
Indeed, it is the Fijians who will face the English on October 15. But the Portuguese, coached by Frenchman Patrice Laguesque, delighted his fans by presenting heroic matches, most notably against Georgia (18-18), which it recently surpassed in the classification, or against Australia (34-14). Now it’s time to celebrate.
