Portugal national rugby union team

The Portuguese national rugby union team represents Portugal at international level in the sport of Rugby Union. It is classified by the World Association International Rugby Board (IRB ) in the third strength class ( third tier ). Nine years after the founding of the Association Federação Portuguesa de Rugby the first international match was played in 1935. The Portuguese won surprisingly the European Championship 2002-2004 and qualified in 2007 for the first time for the World Cup. The nickname of the team is Os Lobos ("The Wolves ").

History

Rugby was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by French and English merchants in Portugal, the different teams called into life there. However, the sport could not prevail. Reasons were the economic and social problems after the founding of the Republic, the First World War and the dominance of football. 1926, the Portuguese Rugby Federation was founded, and nine years later the first international match was against Spain, which lost the Portuguese with 5:6.

Until 1965, the Portuguese carried out only just three matches, which both ended in defeat against Spain. It was not until the mid-1960s there were regular international meetings in 1967 were the wolves against Spain celebrating their first victory. After a series of mediocre results reach the Portuguese between 1979 and 1981 with five wins in a row. 1984 and 1985, they managed to remain unbeaten seven times in a row.

In qualifying for the World Cup in 1991 and 1995, the Portuguese failed already in the preliminary rounds. In 1999, she reached the Barrage, but eliminated by Uruguay in the battle for one of the last two launch sites with a total score of 33:79 from. In 2003, she missed in the third round also qualify, due to the weaker points ratio against Spain. The Rugby Championship 2003/ 04 Portugal lost only one of ten games in Division 1 and was in front of the big favorites Romania surprisingly European champions.

At the European Championships 2004-06 it was enough for third place behind Romania and Georgia. This tournament also scored as round 4 of qualifying for the World Cup 2007. Portugal finished round 5 as group runners and lost the play-off against Europe Georgia. In the second Barrage the Portuguese prevailed against Morocco. With an extremely tight success in the final against Uruguay Barrage ( total score 24-23 ) they made the initial entry into the World Cup finals.

Achievements

  • Championship 2002-04: 1st place
  • Championship 2004-06: 3rd place
  • Championship 2001-02: 5th place
  • World Cup 2007: Preliminary round (5th place Group C )

Known player

  • Diogo Mateus
  • David Penalva
  • Gonçalo Uva
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