The Portuguese rugby team hosts Spain on Sunday, in Lisbon, with the aim of “going to the final” of the Rugby Europe Championship 2024 (REC24), coach João Mirra said today in statements to the Lusa agency.
“From the moment we are here, we cannot be hypocrites, of course we want to assume [o objetivo], win this game and go to the final. It makes no sense to be at this stage of the competition and not assume this objective”, said the representative of the technical team led by World Rugby consultant, Daniel Hourcade.
Portugal qualified for the REC24 semi-finals in first place in Group B, despite being surprised in Belgium, in the first round, with a 10-6 defeat, which put in danger the “first objective, which was to stay among the top four classified.”
Triumphs over Poland (54-7), at home, and Romania (49-24) followed, which put Portugal back on the path to success, despite João Mirra reinforcing the idea that the Portuguese team is “in a phase of evolution” and, despite no longer being “at the start of this marathon”, there is still “a long way” to go.
“The first objective was to be in the top four, but we want to be a top team and top teams cannot escape this responsibility of wanting to win. We cannot say that winning or losing is indifferent, because it is not,” she recalled.
Ahead, the ‘wolves’ will have “a stronger team than Romania”, so they will have to be “more consistent” than in the last matches, “starting with the issue of avoiding making individual mistakes” that end up harming the collective.
“We can’t just be good for 10, 15 or 20 minutes, because then, against strong teams, like Spain, we allow ourselves to not control the game and the result may not fall to us”, warned Mirra.
The starting fifteen to face the Spanish team will be released today, around 48 hours before the start of the match.
In 2023, the two teams also faced each other in the European Championship semi-finals, also at the Restelo Stadium, in a match that Portugal won 27-10.
The Portuguese rugby team hosts Spain on Sunday, in a REC24 semi-final match, scheduled to start at 3pm, at the Restelo Stadium, in Lisbon, and refereed by Frenchman Benoît Rousselet.
Portugal qualified for the semi-finals in first place in Group B, after losing in Belgium (10-6) and beating Poland (54-7), at home, and Romania (49-24), in Bucharest.
Spain qualified in second place in Group A, after beating the Netherlands (20-18), Germany (27-5), at home, and losing in Georgia (38-3).
The finals are scheduled for March 17, at the Jean Bouin Stadium, in Paris.
The Rugby Europe Championship is the main European national team tournament, with the exception of the Six Nations tournament, which is a private competition.
The former ‘Six Nations B’ tournament, played by eight teams since 2023, is played annually and is considered the European Championship of the sport.
Portugal won the tournament in 2004 and became runner-up last year, after losing the final, in Badajoz, against Georgia (38-11), a team that dominates the competition’s history with 15 titles in 21 editions.
