The “lesson” that Georgia taught Portugal in the Six Nations B final: “We are going to have to change our mindset, be more of a man”

The Portuguese rugby team lost, on Sunday, the final of the Rugby Europe Championship 2024 against Georgia by 36-10, with the coach and players recognizing the opponent’s superiority and blaming the group’s inexperience for the defeat.

“We weren’t good enough. We have to congratulate Georgia, they were stronger. We didn’t have the patience to keep possession of the ball, against such a physical team that played so well we needed to build several phases and we often lost the ball in the early stages. It’s part of it”, said coach João Mirra, speaking to journalists after the game.

At the Jean Boudin stadium, in Paris, Portugal played in the final against Georgia of the Rugby Europe Championship 2024, closing a day dedicated to European rugby in the French capital where other teams such as Poland, Germany and Spain also played.

Lucas Martins is one of the youngest players in this team and entered the game very early to replace Nuno Sousa Guedes, who was injured. For this Portuguese-Frenchman, there was a feeling of frustration that the team only reached second place in the competition.

“It was a great pride to play in this first final. Playing for Portugal is proud and lucky to be able to play, but it was very frustrating because we lost, came second and we want it to be our turn soon”, he said.

Like Lucas Martins, many players joined the national team after the 2023 World Cup. The youth and inexperience of this team will have contributed to this defeat, as explained by José Lima, one of the most experienced players on the squad.

“We have a young team and the trick is gained with experience, I think that today we learned a great lesson and here a lot of guys understood what it’s like to play against Georgia, what it’s like to play in a European final, what we’re going to have ahead and we’re going to have to change our mindset, be more of a man, play forward, not respect the opponent so much in the sense of not waiting for things to happen, for them to put us on the ground and put their hands in our faces “, he told journalists.

João Mirra also sees this youth as an advantage for the future.

“We have to congratulate the players, because they didn’t give up and opened the doors of the future for us. We look at the group we have and it’s a younger group, it’s a group with more choices and it will make the role of coaches in the future easier”, said the Portuguese coach.

Even if the defeat is difficult to accommodate, for captain Tomas Appleton, this is just “the beginning of a cycle” that should take the Wolves to the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

“Any defeat is difficult to accept and when we reach a final, it becomes even more difficult. We go into any game to win and, honestly, today we were not at our best, we broke down in many areas of the game and we will have to turn things around. up, because the train doesn’t stop. We are at the beginning of a cycle for 2027 and we wanted to start off on the right foot”, said the captain.

For the collective, there are good memories of the support of the Portuguese living in France who came in force to Paris to support the team, shouting incessantly during the 80 minutes of the match.

“In Portugal, rugby has grown a lot, but here in France, all of us, players and staff, when we leave this beautiful sport, we will always remember the support we had in France, what happened here was spectacular”, concluded João Myrrh.