Portugal rugby players celebrate their win against Fiji at the World Cup last year. Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images
Springbok coach Rassie Erasmus is spot on when he says Portugal are not to be taken lightly when the teams clash in a first ever meeting in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
The Portuguese are in good form and will back themselves to shock the world champions, just like they did Fiji at the Rugby World Cup in France last year.
The 15th ranked Portugal are now higher on the world rankings than Tonga (16th), Uruguay (17th), USA (18th), Romania (20th), Canada (21st) and Namibia (23rd), all teams who’ve played quite regularly at World Cup tournaments.
Besides beating Fiji 24-23 at the World Cup in 2023, they drew 18-all with Georgia (now ranked 12th) at the tournament, and hammered the USA 46-20 in the build-up to the World Cup. In their latest outing, in Windhoek last weekend, they beat Namibia 37-22.
Now the Wolves, as they’re known, have their sights on the world’s number one team and world champions, the Boks.
“It’s massive, playing against double world champions,” Portugal captain and centre Tomas Appleton told Rugby365 in an interview in Bloemfontein.
“It’s so big for us as a developing union. For some of us players, we are playing against guys that we are used to seeing on the television.
“They are the guys that influence our game style and the way we want to play.
“You don’t want to put them on a pedestal, as we are conscious that we want to show the world that we are taking this very seriously.
“And we want to shock the world every time we step onto the pitch.”
And the Wolves will believe they can do just that, considering the Boks will run onto the field with seven uncapped players in their matchday-23, and a further seven with 10 or less Test caps. Rookie lock Salmaan Moerat will captain the World Cup winners from last year.
The match in Bloemfontein kicks off at 5pm.
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