Rugby World Cup Blog | Jonah Lomu | 2007

Jonah Lomu

Jonah praises improving Portugal

Thu Sep 20 11:57AM

Today was a work day for me.  I travelled on the TGV from Paris to the east of France to visit the adidas offices in Strasbourg.  Strasbourg was where the adidas international business started from many years ago.  It was a day of meetings, media interviews and signings and of course the opportunity to see another part of France that I hadn't been to.  It was a great day meeting lots of people and we had a short hour to enjoy a traditional Northern French lunch at La Cour de Lise in Whilgotheim.  This was a small restaurant run by a local family the picture above is of the owner and chef Jean-Paul and Andre Maestrini the Managing Director of adidas France.

The game last night between Italy and Portugal was something I was looking forward to watching.  I thought there may have been a good contest there, but it was just frustrating to watch because Portugal played quite well but in the end were very unlucky. They are still an inexperienced team with the ball and probably lack cohesion. They scored a very good try which started from a lineout and after taking the ball into the midfield and setting up several mauls they produced the goods.  It was a good solid piece of rugby and it shows they are improving game after game. You just have to take a look at the scoreboard to see that they were very close for the first 50 minutes. Then unfortunately they made some crucial mistakes and the Italians capitalised on this scoring more points.

Again, after this game you can say that they deserve to be there, they have a powerful pack, good defence, and show some good speed in the backline they just need more more big games playing consistently at a higher level.  This is the ongoing challenge of developing world rugby and it's not any easy one to solve.  Italy has some Six Nations games under their belt and some good wins.  If Portugal were able to have the same opportunities I'm sure they'd improve. They have already shown a lot of progress from 2003 but if the next World Cup is reduced to just 16 teams, I wonder what effect it will have on the game.

Italy now have ten days to prepare the clash against Scotland, a clash that will decide the future of the two teams in the group. But you know they have already beaten Scotland in the Six Nations so it will a matter of whether they can lift their game.

Against Portugal, Italy came into the game very late they started slowing the ball down and playing the game in their own way.

The next ten days are now the tough part of Pierre Berbizier's job, They need to reorganise themselves, to have a fresh look at their game. I do think it's more mental than physical at this point. They have the chance to take a breather for 10 days and they need to make the most of that.

All in all I think the scoreline was a bit tough on Portugal who fought bravely throughout the game and managed to not only score a try but deny Italy the bonus point.

Likes: It was fantastic to see Troncon's 100th cap recognised at the game, it is a great achievement that not many players reach.

Likes: A Parc des Princes almost full for what was supposed to be a small game.

Dislikes: It was a shame to see a small crowd turn out for the Scotland game.

  • Comments1 - 3 of 3

  1. Another match, another try. Portugal played a fantastic game, and you have to remember that the team consists mostly of players who are amateurs. Rugby is not what they do for a living (in fact they are paying to be in the World Cup), they have their ordinary jobs and train whenever they can. Unfortunately this also means they lack fitness in the latter stages of the game, and the second halves tend to be much harder because some players can no longer run like before. Kudos to all the Portuguese players, you guys have been amazing and you are making us quite proud.

    omnitradus_idiomFrom omnitradus_idiom on Thu Sep 20 02:33PM

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  2. yeah, of course the Parc des Princes stadium was full... Paris and France are full of portuguese people, and they always appear in large numbers when Portugal is playing around...

    and I liked the portuguese play...

    smdx69From smdx69 on Thu Sep 20 05:22PM

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  3. There was a time that the level of top rugby nations and lower nations have raised plenty of questions but less answer. I think all that has changed in this World Cup. The gap is getting closer but still there is a wide open space. But I do believe we're getting there.

    http://mundoalbiceleste.blogspot.com

    sivanjohnFrom sivanjohn on Fri Sep 21 01:58AM

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