Why Rugby Struggles to Gain Recognition and Professionalism in Portugal

It must be said that rugby is still far from being an obvious choice in the country. “In terms of visibility and interest of the population, the recognition of this sport is not what we would like”regrets the president of the Portuguese Rugby Federation, Carlos Amado Silva, in an interview with AFP. “It’s a cultural issue. Unfortunately, in our country, everything revolves around football”deplores, for his part, Luis Filipe Lança de Morais, at the head of the Grupo Desportivo de Direito, the main provider of the selection. “Rugby is an almost family sport, passed from father to son or between friends,” further notes the journalist Antonio Aguilar, reference in the discipline and commentator on matches broadcast on television.

As a direct consequence, a good part of the national team is still made up of amateur or semi-professional players. At the Grupo Desportivo de Direito – the club created within the law faculty of the University of Lisbon is the most represented in the workforce – professionalization remains a distant objective, underlines fatalistically, its leader. “Direito players pay to play rugby”, he slips. Symbol of this delay, captain Tomas Appleton is a dental surgeon, when he is not playing rugby.

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