Sorry Cockers, but it’s Portugal for me
IWISH the doughty warriors of Georgia no ill will – on the contrary, I remain a stalwart supporter and their new coach Richard Cockerill is one of my favourite rugby characters – but for the good of European Rugby I’m hoping for a shock Portugal win next Sunday in the final of the Rugby Europe Championship.
And make no mistake, for all their World Cup pyrotechnics a Portugal win in Paris would still be a shock. Week in week out, year in year out, Georgia are far and away the most consistent of the “other” European teams, the nation with the largest pool of players and greatest strength in depth.
The Lelos have won 12 of the last 13 Rugby Europe Championships since 2010 with only Romania in 2016-2017 interrupting that remarkable run of success. And since 2000 – when Italy joined the Six Nations and France A ceased to compete – Georgia have won 106 of their 124 games with another five drawn.
Georgia are always the team to beat but losing the title this year would, in the long run, do them a power of good. Scandalously denied regular fixtures against the elite teams, Georgia badly need the Europe Championship to be much more testing and varied if they are to develop and fulfil their potential.
Georgia’s desire to earn respect worldwide and shame the Six Nations into opening up their private members’ club has been the driving force, along with the immense pride invested in the national team, but it has made for an occasionally less than enthralling championship.
Their pre-eminence has set the template for the kind of rugby apparently required to prevail in a long European winter. Romania and Russia – before they were suspended following the invasion of Ukraine – were hewn from the same stone and there appeared little room for lighter ball handling teams such as Spain and Portugal.
The narrative had become repetitive and stale and the Rugby Europe “brand” was a tad stodgy. It’s needed lightening up with TV and sponsors more likely to get involved if at least some of the teams played with more flair, and a smile.
Well, the balance has been changing a little and in fact credit first to Spain who started playing a much looser all-court game six or seven years ago which in fact earned them two World Cup qualifications. That fine achievement was ruined by sloppy paperwork on their part and the rank hypocrisy of World Rugby who bend over backwards to make it possible for T1 nations to simply buy up overseas players they desired or ‘game’ the eligibility regulations, while, at the same time, acting in a draconian fashion against T2 nations.
When Spain were eliminated from RW2019 it was because two of their French based players – Spanish speakers who were paying for the privilege of representing the land of their parents and grandparents – had been misinformed by the French federation 10 years earlier about whether a couple of France U20 appearances constituted capture games. Pathetic.
And then came Portugal. Although they qualified for RWC2003 the game there seemed to be stalling before the current explosion of excellence which is mainly down to happy circumstances. A collection of freakishly talented juniors twice finished runners-up in the World Rugby Trophy (basically division two of the Junior World Cup) in 2017 and 2018 and as some of those fed into the senior team they won the 2019 Rugby Europe Trophy competition (Division Two in Europe) for the third time in row and on this occasion topped that off by beating Germany 37-32 in the promotion relegation play-off.
It was take-off time for Portuguese rugby, well in spirit anyway, if not substance. Os Lobos scored spectacular tries and won many hearts and minds but it’s worth noting that their three REC campaigns since being promoted resulted in a fourth place in 2020, third place in 2021 and another fourth place in 2022 on the eve of the World Cup. Remarkably the team who many considered the story of RWC23 only qualified because Spain were chucked out and Portugal received a late call up for the repechage tournament in Dubai where they squeezed past USA with a penalty in injury time of the final game.
It’s been seat-of-the-pants stuff by the Portuguese and, for all the glorious entertainment they have provided in climbing to 15th in the world, they would dearly like something concrete to show for it, like a second REC title to put alongside the Championship they won in 2004. It won’t be easy. Portugal have been firefighting a little since RWC playing at best with just seven or eight of the 23-man squad who defeated Fiji at the Rugby World Cup.
There have been big retirements – hooker Mike Tadjer, prop Francisco Fernandes and scrumhalf Samuel Marques – injuries, amateur players stepping back for a season to concentrate on work and family and a mutual agreement that others concentrate on French club commitments for a year or so.
Given all that their qualification for the final and a guaranteed second place should not be underestimated and out of necessity they have discovered an array of younger players that augers well. Skipper Tomas Appleton told us last week that all sorts of players worldwide are contacting the union claiming eligibility and a desire to join the Portuguese fun bus. They, like us, love the way Os Lobos go about their business.
There has been an immediate pay-off in that respect with young French-born half-backs Hugo Camacho and Hugo Aubry – promising youngsters with Bayonne and Rouen – deciding at an early stage to opt for Portugal. Neither had made France U20 teams but they were on the radar and rated highly. Aubry was with the La Rochelle Academy before moving to get more game time.
Their emergence has been a massive plus following the retirement of Marques and Jeronimo Portela’s decision to have a sabbatical season. Then came another “find” – the strapping Lucas Martins on the left wing, younger brother of the even more strapping Nicolas Martins who, to these eyes, is already one of the best all-purpose back five forwards in world rugby. Portugal, unlike that pioneering team of the early and mid-noughties, have a younger generation who can pick up the baton and Georgia could be the greatest beneficiaries of all!