The national rugby team returns to Portugal today (at 7:40 PM, at Humberto Delgado Airport, in Lisbon) after the epic victory over the Fiji Islands (24-23), which concluded the Wolves’ historic participation in the 2023 World Cup . 13. º in the world rankings as of yesterday) received praise from the sport’s greatest and prompted selector Patrice Lagisquet (who left the national team) to publicly ask World Rugby to reward the team’s performance with direct qualification for Australia 2027 ( something the rules allow).
Directly or indirectly, presence at the next World Cup is something that the President of the Portuguese Rugby Federation (FPR), re-elected for the four-year period 2023-2027, is betting blindfolded on… such as the unveiling of the modality at national level, greater investments in infrastructure, decentralization and the fight against abandonment in a sport played by 6,808 people: “We will definitely make progress with this.”
If Carlos Amado da Silva said to his ‘boys’ before the 2023 World Cup, while treating them, that he was proud of their performances but sad about the results, now he is ‘extremely happy and proud’ to see that the world surrenders. to the good rugby of the Portuguese. This was not “expected” against teams from the top 10 of the world, 100% professionals, with budgets that put to shame the only semi-amateur team of the 20 present at the World Championship: “Despite all that, the first big victory was to reach of the World Championships.” Cup and be one of twenty, in a universe of 200 teams”.
It took three and a half months of total dedication from the players and the technical team: “Fantastic. They were exceptional and the support from the people was incredible. The Portuguese sold out stadiums and were always in the majority in the stands watching the players who played the best.” You can see rugby in the world. It can only make me satisfied as president. It’s almost a dream. A dream I have always believed in. Someone like me wouldn’t believe it.”
According to the director, the invisible work that made the dream possible started by putting ‘the right people in the right place’ and hiring a ‘very good’ technical team: ‘Patrice Lagisquet is a very renowned technician, who came to Portugal to to show that it was possible to play nice, attractive and winning. It created a winning mentality. Against teams of this level we were not thinking about winning, but about losing by a few points.”
Amado da Silva also recalled that “Portugal has reached a level that it cannot lower now, so as not to ruin all the work done”. To increase the success of Portuguese participation, “it is necessary to promote rugby more nationally, to show that there is a different ball and that it is not round”. Therefore, a publicity project will begin “soon” throughout the country, to “quickly return to 10,000” federated athletes. There are currently 6233 men and 575 women registered.
But this is medium- and long-term thinking. It requires patience and results like those of the World Cup. “We need two things immediately: more athletes playing in Portugal and a place where they can do so. The Jamor High Performance Center no longer meets ideal conditions. We deliver projects to improve the field at Jamor and accommodate high-level teams, with a capacity for 7/8 thousand people and ticket charging. We need to generate revenue. Nowadays, every match the team plays causes losses. We can’t wait for the state to subsidize everything. We have already reduced this dependency from 90 to 30%, but we are still dependent on the state.”
This practice is recommended, not least because of the values inherent in the sport: “Respect and inclusivity are healthy and fundamental to the education of children and young people. Rugby is a good choice and deserves more support. We hope for more support from sovereign bodies like World Rugby and we will have that.”
Decentralization is also an essential condition. About 70% of the players come from the capital region. According to the demographic x-ray of rugby practice, there are 39 clubs in the South region (4737 athletes), 11 in the North region (1159 athletes) and 8 in the Central region (912 players). Law, CDUL, Belenenses, Cascais, Agronomia, AA Coimbra and CDUP (Porto) are the ones that give the most practitioners to the sport.
Of the 59 clubs registered with the Federation, eight do not have women’s teams. More worrying, according to the data provided to DN by the entity that manages the sport, nine of the 59 clubs do not have a registered federation athlete this season – one of them is V. Setúbal, one of the clubs with historical links to football where rugby was abandoned (Benfica, Sporting and Belenenses remained).
Preventing players from being abandoned early is another challenging objective: “Rugby must stop being a top sport. We have achieved excellent results with the under-18s and under-20s, but unfortunately many of them do not continue their careers Many players play during their studies and after they have completed the courses and no longer play.”
And after Lagisquet?
Yesterday, Patrice Lagisquet spoke in summary about the “success” of Portugal’s participation in the World Cup – victory over Fiji (24-23), draw against Georgia (18-18) and two honorable defeats against the country Wales (28-8) and Australia (34-14). “I enjoyed building this group, the rugby they knew how to play, because for me it was a good experience to adapt to the DNA of Portuguese rugby,” the coach told Lusa, emphasizing on Jerónimo Portela, Raffaele Storti and Rodrigo Marta – who, at 23, is already the team’s all-time best goalscorer – as part of the “golden generation” that is already the team’s future.
Lagisquet is voluntarily leaving the national team, leaving “a complicated legacy” because of the fame he achieved at the World Cup, the federation leader says. “Whoever comes next will have to persevere and follow the same path. It has been chosen, I cannot reveal it yet because the technical team still needs to be finalized, but next week it might already be announced,” revealed Carlos Amado da Silva to DN.
Source: DN
