PREVIEW-Rugby-Portugal grit their teeth for chance to shine in France

Captained by a dentist and coached by an insurance salesman, Portugal earned their place at this year’s Rugby World Cup in dramatic fashion with a storybook ending to their qualification campaign, but will be huge underdogs in Pool C. They were the last team to book their ticket to France as scrumhalf Samuel Marques showed nerves of steel to land a penalty with the final kick of the match and earn a 16-16 draw with the United States.

Captained by a dentist and coached by an insurance salesman, Portugal earned their place at this year's Rugby World Cup in dramatic fashion with a storybook ending to their qualification campaign, but will be huge underdogs in Pool C.

They were the last team to book their ticket to France as scrumhalf Samuel Marques showed nerves of steel to land a penalty with the final kick of the match and earn a 16-16 draw with the United States. "It's hard to explain, it's one of the best feelings in the world," Portugal captain Tomas Appleton, a qualified dentist, said at the time.

"For the rugby community this is amazing, we've been missing (from the World Cup) for quite some time and we need a new generation to inspire the kids." Portugal's only other appearance came in 2007 when the World Cup was also hosted in France. They lost all four pool games, conceding 209 points in the process, but the expectation is they will be more competitive this time round.

They face Australia, Wales, Fiji and Georgia in their group, and while any sort of victory will be a surprise, they can at least show they have closed the gap on the more established rugby nations. They lost 38-11 to Georgia in the final of the Rugby Europe Championship in March.

Many of their players feature for lower league clubs in France and so will feel at home, including French-born Marques, 34, who had a spell with Toulouse earlier in his career. They have one of the best back threes in tier two rugby with try machines Raffaele Storti and Rodrigo Marta on the wings, and fullback Nuno Sousa Guedes. If nothing else, Portugal will be fun to watch.

They are led by French coach Patrice Lagisquet, who juggles his day job in the insurance industry with plotting the team's World Cup campaign. Former winger Lagisquet played 46 tests for France, including at the 1987 and 1991 World Cups, and was nicknamed "The Bayonne Express". He knows his side will have to learn fast if they are to put up a competitive showing this year.

"We have to show that we deserved to qualify for the World Cup and that the level of our game is good enough to be there," he told reporters. "I wouldn't say it's a responsibility, but rather a requirement we have with ourselves. "We have been working on this goal since I started in 2019. The best job we have done with this team is to build up a strong scrum, have the capacity to play the mauls and to defend them well."

Lagisquet was also France's backs coach at the 2015 World Cup.