Preview: Portugal vs Brazil

Portugal and Brazil will resume their rivalry on Saturday. The teams have played competitive rugby internationals in the recent past. More importantly, they are to compete in what is preparation for their respective preparation for RWC 2023 qualifiers.

The COVID-19 interrupted what had been a promising start to 2020 for Portuguese rugby. Portugal defeated Belgium 23-17 and Romania 22-11. Portugal was also close against Russia, losing 19-18 in Kalingrad.

Head Coach Patrice Lagisquet said that “we want to show that we deserve to be at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.”

Lagisquet’s teams s not at full-strength. Several French-based players had been in the initial roster but will not play in the match. There are, however, two players known to South American supporters. Jerónimo Portela and Raffaele Storti start at fly half and wing respectively. Both men played Super Liga Americana de Rugby (SLAR) for Peñarol this year.

Brazil are coming-off a disappointing South American 4 Nations. The team played as the Brazil XV. It was, however, not the next of XV; the same athletes are in the 23 to face Portugal.

Head Coach Fernando Portugal has named a formidable front-five. Lucas Abud, Endy Willian, and Wilton Rebolo will starty in the front-row. Gabriel Paganini and Cleber Dias lock the scrum. They will have quality back-ups with Caique Silva, Yan Rosetti, Matheus Rocha, and Michael Morais all on the bench.

The back-row sees stand-out André Arruda starting at N8. He will be joined by Matheus Cláudio, and Adrio de Melo.

Brazil will continue with the rookie halves pairing of Douglas Rauth, and Lucas Spago. They were preferred to veterans in the South American 4 Nations and retain their spots against Portugal.

There is familiarity in the rest of the backline. Moisés Duque and Felipe Sancery will start in the mid-field; while Daniel Lima, Robert Tenório, and Daniel Sancery are to be the back-three.

Portugal and Brazil have played five prior test matches. Portugal has a 3-2 winning record. Brazil, though, won the most recent contest; doing so 26-24 last November in São Paulo. Brazil’s other win was in June 2017. On that occasion Os Tupis completed an impressive comeback victory; winning 25-21.

Portugal are ranked 21st in the world rankings; Brazil are 29th. This factor alone is north sufficient to suggest that Portugal are favorites. However, when factoring 2020 performances and home advantage then Portugal do appear favorites. ARN projects a Portuguese victory by 12 points.

 

TEAMS

PORTUGAL
1 David Costa, 2 Duarte Diniz, 3 Diogo Ferreira, 4 José Madeira, 5 Rafael Simões, 6 Valentim Ambrósio, 7 David Carvalho, 8 Thibault Freitas, 9 João Belo, 10 Jerónimo Portela, 11 Antônio Cortes, 12 Tomás Appleton, 13 José Lima, 14 Raffaele Storti, 15 Manuel Pinto

Replacements: 16 Hugo Mendes, 17 Nuno Mascarenhas, 18 Bruno Rocha, 19 Duarte Torgal, 20 Manuel Eusébio, 21 Nuno Souza Guedes, 22 João Lima, 23 Pedro Lucas

BRAZIL
1 Lucas Abud, 2 Endy Willian, 3 Wilton Rebolo, 4 Gabriel Paganini , 5 Cleber Dias, 6 Matheus Cláudio, 7 Adrio de Melo, 8 André Arruda, 9 Douglas Rauth, 10 Lucas Spago, 11 Daniel Lima, 12 Moisés Duque, 13 Felipe Sancery (capt.), 14 Robert Tenório, 15 Daniel Sancery

Replacements: 16 Caique Silva, 16 Yan Rosetti, 18 Matheus Rocha, 19 Michael Morais, 20 Rafael Teixeira, 21 Felipe Cunha, 22 Josh Reeves, 23 Laurent Bourda-Couhet

Date: Saturday, November 21
Kick-Off: 3pm (Lisbon), 12pm (Brasilia)
Venue: Centro Desportivo Nacional do Jamor (CDNJ), Lisbon
Referee: Alexandru Ionescu (Romania)
Assistant Referees: Vlad Iordachescu (Romania), Radu Petrescu (Romania)
Broadcast: Rugby TV, ESPN Brasil, Sudamérica Rugby APP