Portugal national rugby union team

Portugal
Nickname	Os Lobos (The Wolves)
Emblem	Portuguese shield
Union	Portuguese Rugby Federation
Head coach	Simon Mannix
Captain	Tomás Appleton
Most caps	Gonçalo Uva (101); Vasco Uva (101)
Top scorer	Gonçalo Malheiro (279)
Top try scorer	Rodrigo Marta (25)
Home stadium	Various
First colours	Second colours
World Rugby ranking
Current	13 (as of 9 October 2023)
Highest	13 (2023)
Lowest	30 (2015, 2016)
First international
	Portugal 5–6 Spain ; (Lisbon, Portugal; 13 April 1935)
Biggest win
	Portugal 93–0 Czech Republic ; (Caldas da Rainha, Portugal; 23 March 2019)
Biggest defeat
	New Zealand 108–13 Portugal ; (Lyon, France; 15 September 2007)
World Cup
Appearances	2 (First in 2007)
Best result	Pool stage (2007, 2023)
Website	fpr.pt

The Portugal national rugby union team (Portuguese: Seleção Portuguesa de Rugby), nicknamed Os Lobos (The Wolves), represents Portugal in men's international rugby union competitions. The team, as well as all rugby union in Portugal, is administered by the Federação Portuguesa de Rugby.

Portugal have experienced modest success in the last two decades. They qualified for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France and though they lost all their matches, they managed to score one try in each game and led against Romania until the late minutes. Portugal qualified for their second Rugby World Cup in 2022, topping a repechage qualifying group featuring the United States, Hong Kong, and Kenya to qualify for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. In that edition of the tournament, Portugal got their first competition points in a Rugby World Cup when they drew Georgia 18-18. Later on in the tournament, they got their first ever win in the Rugby World Cup when they beat Fiji 24-23 thanks to a late try from Rodrigo Marta.

History

Early

Portugal played its first ever rugby international in April 1935 against Spain, losing by a single point, 6–5.^{[citation needed]} They played Spain again the following year with Spain winning 16–9. Portugal had more regular competition from the mid-1960s, and won their first game in 1966, defeating Spain 9–3.^{[citation needed]} Portugal played Italy for the first time in 1967, losing 6–3. They also had their first match against Romania soon after and lost by 40 points. They defeated Belgium in 1968, and also played Morocco for the first time.

The first game of the 1970s was a draw against the Netherlands. Portugal managed to draw with Italy (nil all) in 1972 and following that, defeated them 9–6 in 1973. After a number of mixed results throughout the early 1970s, Portugal won five matches in a row from 1979 through to 1981. They played Morocco, who won the encounter. After a 1983 draw against Spain, Portugal managed a seven-game winning streak from 1984 to 1985, including wins over Belgium, Denmark, Morocco, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Zimbabwe. The first Rugby World Cup was held in 1987, though it was by invitation, thus there was no qualifying tournament and Portugal did not participate.

1990s

From 1989 to 1990, the 1991 World Cup qualifiers were held for the European nations. Portugal started in Round 2b in October 1989. They defeated Czechoslovakia 15 to 13 in Ricant to advance to Round 2c. However here they were defeated by the Netherlands 32–3 and eliminated from qualifying.

Portugal again participated in the 1995 World Cup qualifying competition for European teams, starting in Round 1. They were pooled in the West Group, and defeated Belgium and Switzerland, but lost to Spain, advancing into Round 2. Here Wales defeated them, and they lost to Spain.

Portugal began in Pool 3 of Round B in the European qualifying competition for the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Portugal won all their group matches, except for the one against Spain, and still finished second in the group, which took them into Pool 3 of Round C. All games were held in Edinburgh, Scotland. Portugal lost 85–11 to Scotland, and 21–17 to Spain. Both Scotland and Spain went through to the World Cup; Portugal went into repechage, where Portugal lost a home and away series to Uruguay.

2000s

In 2002, Portugal began playing for a place in the 2003 Rugby World Cup in Pool A of Round 3 of the European qualifying tournament. They were grouped with Spain and Poland. Each nation only won one game, though on for and against Portugal finished second to Spain. Portugal were knocked out of competition. In 2003–04, Portugal won the European Nations Cup, losing only one match to win their first championship. In 2004, Professor Tomaz Morais, coach of the Portugal national team at both sevens and fifteen a side, was nominated for the IRB's coach of the year award. This was a remarkable achievement for a coach from a third tier rugby nation. Morais has been credited with much of Portugal's progress in recent years.

In 2006, it was announced that Portugal would receive a grant from the IRB to help develop their rugby to Tier 2 standard. Few details were released regarding how the money was spent, but it was hoped it would ensure that Portugal's rugby would be able to move onto the next level. In 2006, the inaugural IRB Nations Cup was hosted in Lisbon. The tournament featured Portugal, Russia, Argentina A and Italy A.

2007 World Cup

Portugal began their qualification campaign for the 2007 Rugby World Cup in 2004, as part of the European Nations Cup Division 1 2004–06 tournament. They won their first match, defeating Ukraine 6–36. They then defeated Georgia 18–14 in their second match, won their third match against the Czech Republic, defeated Russia as well, but then lost to Romania. Portugal then drew with Russia 19-all and lost to Georgia. After a loss to Romania and a win against the Czech Republic, Portugal finished third overall in the standings, and qualified for Round 5.

Round 5 was played in October 2006 as a three match series between Italy, Russia and Portugal. Both Portugal and Russia lost heavily in their matches against Italy, who easily qualified for the finals. Second place came down to the final match of the round in Lisbon. Portugal won the match 26–23 against Russia to make it to Round 6. Round 6 was a home and away series against the Round 5 Pool B winners, Georgia. Portugal lost the first match, but drew 11-all in the second meeting. Georgia went through to the finals, and Portugal entered the repechage round where they defeated Morocco 26–20 on aggregate.

Portugal then faced Uruguay for the last position in the finals. In the first leg of the two-match Repechage series, Portugal won 12–5. In the second game in Montevideo Portugal lost 18–12. On aggregate, Portugal won 24–23, sending them to their first ever World Cup. Having qualified for their first World Cup, several players were subsequently arrested in the ensuing celebrations as a result of an altercation with local police.^{[citation needed]} No charges were laid and the players involved were allowed to leave Uruguay.

In the 2007 Rugby World Cup, Portugal went to Pool C, alongside favourites the All Blacks, Italy, Romania and Scotland. Portugal's highlights included preventing Italy getting a bonus point, scoring a try against the All Blacks, and coming within a try of beating Romania before losing 14–10. They also managed to score in all the four games, unlike Scotland and Romania. The Portugal team were celebrated for their commitment and passion,^{[citation needed]} and for being the only amateur team to make it to the World Cup.

2008–present

After the World Cup, Portugal faced some problems, including the end of the club and international careers of several key players, like Joaquim Ferreira, Paulo Murinello, Samuel Belo and Rui Cordeiro, and achieved only one win over Czech Republic in the final round of the European Nations Cup tournament, finishing in 5th place, their worst result since 2002.

On 1 November 2008, they lost at home against Canada 21–13 in a friendly game.^[1] After a disappointing campaign under Tomaz Morais in the 2006-08 edition of the Six Nations B, that would qualify for the 2011 Rugby World Cup finals, Murray Henderson was assigned as Specialist Forward coach.

Portugal missed the second presence at the Rugby World Cup finals, after two surprising losses at home with Georgia (10–16) and Romania (9–20), which the "Lobos" had previously defeated 22–21 abroad. Portugal thus missed the 3rd place that would have granted access to the Rugby World Cup repechage.

Tomaz Morais was replaced by New Zealand coach Errol Brain, in October 2010, with a three years contract. He had mixed results, starting with strong performances but ended up with disappointing games. He was replaced by Frederico Sousa in October 2013.

Portugal lost to Germany in the 2015–16 European Nations Cup Division 1A, finishing last, resulting in relegation for the following year.

After Portugal got relegated to the 2016–17 Rugby Europe Trophy, Portugal went on to win the tournament 3 times in a row until the 2018-19 season, when they were granted promotion to the Rugby Europe Championship. Since then, Portugal have been quite successful in the competition. In the 2020-21 season, they finished 3rd place in a league system and in the 2022-23 season, they finished 1st place in a pool with Romania, Poland and Belgium, which led them to a semi-final with Spain, which they won (27-10), going all the way to the final in Badajoz, which they unfortunately lost to Georgia (38-11).

Portugal qualified for the 2023 Rugby World Cup through the repechage tournament held in Dubai, beating Hong Kong, Kenya and drawing with the USA (16-16) on the last game, winning the repechage tournament on point difference.

They had a successful tournament, coming 4th in Pool C. They drew 18-18 with Georgia and pulled off a shock upset by beating Fiji 24-23. After the tournament, their world ranking was 13th, the highest they had ever been.

Kit providers

Year	Kit manufacturer	Main shirt sponsor
2005-2008	Quebramar	Caixa Geral de Depósitos
2008-2014	Adidas
2014-2016	Canterbury
2016-2019	Macron
2019-2020		CV&A Consulting
2020-		Banco Santander

Record

Rugby Europe International Championships

Season	Division	Head Coach	Captain	G	W	D	L	PF	PA	+/−	Pts	Pos
2000	Championship	Evan Crawford		5	2	0	3	74	100	–26	9	5th
2001	Championship	Evan Crawford		5	1	0	4	77	165	–88	7	5th
2002	Championship	Tomaz Morais	Rohan Hoffmann	5	2	0	3	93	130	–37	9	4th
2003	Championship	Tomaz Morais	Luís Pissarra	5	5	0	0	153	85	+68	15	1st
2004	Championship	Tomaz Morais	Luís Pissarra	5	4	0	1	92	95	-3	13	2nd
2005	Championship	Tomaz Morais	Luís Pissarra	5	4	0	1	101	73	+28	13	3rd
2006	Championship	Tomaz Morais	Vasco Uva	5	2	1	2	92	100	-8	10	4th
2007	Championship	Tomaz Morais	Vasco Uva	5	2	0	3	58	96	–38	9	4th
2008	Championship	Tomaz Morais	João Correia	5	1	0	4	116	100	+16	7	5th
2009	Championship	Tomaz Morais	João Correia	5	3	1	1	124	84	+40	12	3rd
2010	Championship	Tomaz Morais	João Correia	5	2	0	3	131	65	+66	9	4th
2011	Championship	Errol Brain	João Correia	5	3	0	2	113	98	+15	14	3rd
2012	Championship	Errol Brain	Gonçalo Uva	5	1	0	4	102	132	–30	7	5th
2013	Championship	Errol Brain	João Correia	5	1	1	3	75	96	–21	7	4th
2014	Championship	Frederico Sousa	João Correia	5	1	0	4	70	126	–56	5	5th
2015	Championship	João Luís Pinto	Vasco Uva	5	1	0	4	52	100	–48	5	5th
2016	Championship	Ian Smith	Francisco Pinto Magalhães	5	0	0	5	72	210	–138	1	6th*
2017	Trophy	Martim Aguiar	Francisco Pinto Magalhães	5	5	0	0	179	37	+142	25	1st
2018	Trophy	Martim Aguiar	João Lino	5	5	0	0	168	76	+92	23	1st
2019	Trophy	Martim Aguiar	Salvador Vassalo	5	5	0	0	272	31	+242	25	1st
2020	Championship	Patrice Lagisquet	Tomás Appleton	5	2	0	3	98	111	-13	9	4th
2021	Championship	Patrice Lagisquet	Tomás Appleton	5	3	0	2	196	139	+57	14	3rd
2022	Championship	Patrice Lagisquet	Tomás Appleton	5	2	1	2	139	98	+41	12	4th
2023	Championship	Patrice Lagisquet	Tomás Appleton	5	4	0	1	195	88	+107	19	2nd
2024	Championship	João Mirra	Tomás Appleton	5	3	0	2	152	107	+45	15	2nd

Notes: Portugal's last place finish in the 2014–16 European Nations Cup First Division resulted in their relegation to 2016–17 Rugby Europe Trophy in the following year.

World Rugby Nations Cup

Year	G	W	D	L	PF	PA	+/−	Pts	Pos
2006	3	0	1	2	62	87	–25	3	4th
2007	did not enter
2008
2009
2010
2011	3	1	0	2	60	89	–29	5	6th
2012	3	0	0	3	37	104	–67	1	6th
2013	did not enter
2014
2015

World Cup Record

Rugby World Cup record

Qualification

Year

Round

Pld

W

D

L

PF

PA

Squad

Head coach

Pos

Pld

W

D

L

PF

PA

1987

Not invited

1991

Did not qualify

n/a

2

1

0

1

18

45

1995

3rd

5

2

0

3

85

177

1999

3rd

8

3

0

5

181

245

2003

2nd

2

1

0

1

60

2007

Pool Stage

4

0

4

38

209

Squad

T. Morais

2nd

18

10

2

6

283

360

2011

Did not qualify

4th

10

5

1

4

255

149

2015

2nd

10

2

1

7

145

222

2019

2nd

7

6

0

1

237

65

2023

Pool Stage

4

1

2

64

103

Squad

P. Lagisquet

1st

13

7

2

4

478

267

2027

To be determined

Total

—

8

1

6

102

312

—

75

37

6

32

1742

1590

Champions Runners-up Third place Fourth place	Home venue

Overall

Men's World Rugby Rankings
v
t
e
Top 30 as of 4 November 2024^[2]
Rank	Change^[i]	Team	Points
1		Ireland	092.12
2		South Africa	091.77
3		New Zealand	089.67
4		France	086.96
5		England	084.43
6		Argentina	084.30
7		Scotland	083.39
8		Italy	079.98
9	1	Australia	079.32
10	1	Fiji	079.07
11		Wales	076.04
12		Georgia	074.10
13		Samoa	072.68
14		Japan	072.31
15		Portugal	070.61
16		Tonga	068.12
17		Uruguay	067.39
18		Spain	066.29
19		United States	065.70
20		Romania	062.62
21		Chile	061.60
22		Canada	060.81
23		Hong Kong	060.40
24		Russia	058.06
25		Namibia	057.87
26	1	Netherlands	057.29
27	3	Belgium	056.51
28	2	Switzerland	056.04
29	1	Zimbabwe	056.03
30	1	Brazil	055.62

^ Change from the previous week

Portugal's historical rankings

See or edit source data.

Source: World Rugby^[2]
Graph updated to 4 November 2024

Head to head results

Below is a table of the representative rugby matches played by a Portugal national XV at test level up until 20 July 2024:^[3]^[4]^[5]

Opponent	Played	Won	Lost	Drawn	% Won
Andorra	3	3	0	0	100%
Argentina XV	5	1	4	0	20%
Australia	1	0	1	0	0%
Australia A	1	0	1	0	0%
Barbarians	1	0	1	0	0%
Belgium	17	11	4	2	64.71%
Brazil	6	4	0	2	66.67%
Canada	5	1	4	0	20%
Chile	4	4	0	0	100%
Czech Republic	12	12	0	0	100%
Czechoslovakia	2	2	0	0	100%
Denmark	2	2	0	0	100%
England Saxons	1	0	1	0	0%
Fiji	3	1	2	0	33.33%
France A	3	0	3	0	0%
Georgia	27	4	19	4	14.81%
Germany	9	6	3	0	66.67%
Hong Kong	3	2	1	0	66.67%
Italy	13	1	11	1	7.69%
Italy A	2	0	1	1	0%
Japan	1	0	1	0	0%
Japan XV	1	0	1	0	0%
Kenya	3	2	1	0	66.67%
Lithuania	1	1	0	0	100%
Moldova	2	2	0	0	100%
Morocco	14	7	5	2	50%
Namibia	9	3	6	0	33.33%
Netherlands	17	13	3	1	76.47%
New Zealand	1	0	1	0	0%
Poland	12	9	3	0	75%
Romania	29	5	24	0	17.24%
Russia	21	6	14	1	28.57%
Scotland	1	0	1	0	0%
Scotland A	1	0	1	0	0%
Spain	42	13	27	2	30.95%
South Africa	1	0	1	0	0%
Soviet Union	2	0	2	0	0%
Sweden	2	2	0	0	100%
Switzerland	7	7	0	0	100%
Tonga	1	0	1	0	0%
Tunisia	9	3	6	0	33.33%
Ukraine	5	4	1	0	80%
United States	5	1	2	2	20%
Uruguay	10	3	7	0	30%
Yugoslavia	3	2	0	1	66.67%
Wales	2	0	2	0	0%
West Germany	3	1	2	0	33.33%
Zimbabwe	4	2	2	0	50%
Total^{[n 1]}	329	140	170	19	42.42%

Players

Current squad

The Portuguese squad for the 2024 mid-year rugby union tests against Namibia and South Africa.

Caps Updated: 20 July 2024

Player	Position	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Club/province
Luka Begic	Hooker	(2001-01-19) 19 January 2001 (age 23)	8	Chambéry
Pedro Vicente	Hooker	(2002-11-07) 7 November 2002 (age 22)	8	Lusitanos XV
Abel da Cunha	Prop	(2002-01-13) 13 January 2002 (age 22)	6	Albi
David Costa	Prop	(1999-07-05) 5 July 1999 (age 25)	31	Direito
Francisco Fernandes	Prop	(1985-09-06) 6 September 1985 (age 39)	50	Béziers
Diogo Hasse Ferreira	Prop	(1996-10-17) 17 October 1996 (age 28)	45	Dax
António Prim	Prop	(2002-12-07) 7 December 2002 (age 21)	11	Lusitanos XV
Cody Thomas	Prop	(1996-03-01) 1 March 1996 (age 28)	2	Rouen
José Madeira	Lock	(2001-03-19) 19 March 2001 (age 23)	39	Grenoble
Sergio Moreira	Lock	(2000-07-11) 11 July 2000 (age 24)	0	Kamaishi Seawaves
António Rebelo de Andrade	Lock	(2000-12-12) 12 December 2000 (age 23)	2	Agronomia
Duarte Torgal	Lock	(1997-12-23) 23 December 1997 (age 26)	25	Direito
Vasco Baptista	Back row	(1996-10-26) 26 October 1996 (age 28)	8	Benfica
André da Cunha	Back row	(2004-05-19) 19 May 2004 (age 20)	2	Belenenses
Nicolas Fernandes	Back row	(2000-01-12) 12 January 2000 (age 24)	1	Mâcon
João Granate	Back row	(1997-02-21) 21 February 1997 (age 27)	40	Direito
Nicolas Martins	Back row	(1999-01-18) 18 January 1999 (age 25)	17	Charente
Diego Pinheiro	Back row	(2003-09-01) 1 September 2003 (age 21)	6	Grenoble
Hugo Camacho	Scrum-half	(2004-05-27) 27 May 2004 (age 20)	7	Bayonne
Duarte Cardoso	Scrum-half	(2004-07-09) 9 July 2004 (age 20)	0	Cascais
Pedro Lucas	Scrum-half	(2000-10-16) 16 October 2000 (age 24)	23	Técnico
Domingos Cabral	Fly-half	(2001-08-16) 16 August 2001 (age 23)	3	Agronomia
Joris Moura	Fly-half	(2000-05-07) 7 May 2000 (age 24)	4	Valence Romans
Manuel Vareiro	Fly-half	(2005-01-14) 14 January 2005 (age 19)	1	Direito
Tomás Appleton (c)	Centre	(1993-07-29) 29 July 1993 (age 31)	73	CDUL
Gabriel Aviragnet	Centre	(2003-09-25) 25 September 2003 (age 21)	0	Albi
José Lima	Centre	(1992-04-24) 24 April 1992 (age 32)	63	Agronomia
Rodrigo Marta	Wing	(1999-11-18) 18 November 1999 (age 24)	39	Colomiers
José Paiva dos Santos	Wing	(2001-04-03) 3 April 2001 (age 23)	6	Belenenses
Manuel Cardoso Pinto	Fullback	(1998-04-07) 7 April 1998 (age 26)	40	Agronomia
Simão Bento	Fullback	(2001-06-21) 21 June 2001 (age 23)	14	Mont-de-Marsan

Individual all-time records

Gonçalo Uva and Vasco Uva are the most capped players for Portugal (both 101) and Gonçalo Uva also has the record for most matches in the starting XV (95).^[6]^[7] The highest scorer for Portugal is Gonçalo Malheiro, with 279 points.^[8] Malheiro is also the player with the most drop goals (12) and penalty goals (51).^[9]^[10] Pedro Leal holds the record for most conversions (45).^[11] Rodrigo Marta with 30 tries is the player with the most tries scored.^[12] Duarte Pinto has the record for most matches as a substitute, with 23 substitutions.^[13] Bernardo Duarte holds the record for most matches as a substitute, without ever playing in the starting XV (14).^[13]

Coaches

Current coaching staff

The coaching staff of the Portuguese national team in the 2024/25 season:

Name	Nationality	Role
Simon Mannix	NZL	Head coach
Olivier Azam	FRA	Forwards Coach
João Mirra	POR	Backs Coach
Olivier Rieg	FRA	Strength & conditioning coach
Elliot Corcoran	IRE	Video analyst
José Paixão	POR	Video analyst
António Cruz Ferreira	POR	Team doctor
José Carlos Rodrigues	POR	Physiotherapist
Rodrigo Pais	POR	Physiotherapist
Mónica Neves	POR	Nutricionist
Nuno Salvador	POR	Team Manager
Fernando Murteira	POR	Team Manager

Former coaches

Name	Years	Tests	Won	Drew	Lost	Win percentage	Source
Pedro Lynce	1976–1983	10	6	0	4	60%	^[14]
João Paulo Bessa	1983–1986	17	9	1	7	52.94%	^[15]
Vasco Lynce	1986–1989	15	4	1	10	26.67%	^[16]
Olegário Borges	1989–1993	14	7	0	7	50%	^[17]
Andrew Cushing	1993–1994	12	2	0	10	16.67%	^[18]
João Paulo Bessa	1994–1999	25	12	1	12	48%	^[19]
Evan Crawford	1999–2001	11	3	0	8	27.27%	^[20]
Tomaz Morais	2001–2010	76	33	4	39	43.42%	^[21]
Errol Brain	2010–2013	26	9	1	16	34.62%	^[22]
Frederico Sousa	2013–2014	8	2	0	6	25%	^[23]
João Luís Pinto	2014–2015	7	2	0	5	28.57%	^[24]
Olivier Baragnon	2015–2016	3	1	0	2	33.33%	^[25]
Ian Smith	2016	5	0	0	5	0%	^[26]
Martim Aguiar	2016–2019	23	18	0	5	78.26%	^[27]
Patrice Lagisquet	2019–2023	37	18	3	16	48.65%	^[28]
Sébastien Bertrank	2023	0	0	0	0	0%	^[29]
João Mirra (interim)	2024	5	3	0	2	60%	^[30]
Simon Mannix	2024–	2	1	0	1	50%

Last updated: 20 July 2024.