“We want to be more than a presence here,” reflects Tomás Appleton as he surveys the precipitous challenge that lies ahead for Portugal. Os Lobos return to the World Cup on Saturday after a 16-year absence and there are few outside who would give them a prayer in arguably the tournament’s toughest pool. Wales may not quake at the prospect of facing a nation that haemorrhaged points in 2007 but, along with the side he captains, Appleton senses an opportunity to show things have changed.
“They were our idols when I was a kid,” he says of the players who, on their debut among the elite, managed to score tries in thumping defeats against Scotland, New Zealand and Italy before coming relatively close to a famous win over Romania. “We want to follow in their footsteps but we also want to compete, win games, be sure of ourselves. Our preparations are so different from everything we’ve had in the past. I’m not saying we’re going to win the tournament or anything like that, but we’re there to be competitive and if we do that we’ll make some surprises.”
Reaching that level takes time and, in Appleton’s case, it is remarkable any such luxury exists. In common with about half his teammates he plays part-time in a domestic league that is 90% amateur. “Rugby doesn’t pay the bills in Portugal,” he notes. Appleton has a successful career as a dentist, running his own clinic in Lisbon, and has begun studying medicine, too. Managing work, study, training, a young family and the deeply felt responsibility of helping rugby achieve its potential in Portugal creates some to-do list for a player only six weeks into his 30s.
High-performance sport and dentistry may not be the odd couple they seem. Heimir Hallgrímsson, who coached another sporting underdog in the form of the Iceland football team that shocked England at Euro 2016, ran a practice on the island of Heimaey and continued to operate there after his rise to fame. The concentrated intensity of a surgery, Hallgrímsson used to say, served as a valuable refuge from the wild cut and thrust of competition.
Appleton empathises. “Yeah, 100%. One really good thing is that when you get into the surgery everything around you just disappears, you’re just really completely focused. In rugby you have so many different factors, and as captain I feel this particularly. You have to deal with a lot of people, staff, coaches, players, egos, and sometimes it’s hard.
“You’re working with 50 people at once and have to try to be as smart as possible. Sometimes the pressure can creep up on you and you have to know how to deal with it. In general the surgery is way more relaxed for me.”
As a third-year dentistry student in 2015, a 22-year-old Appleton decided to dabble in professional rugby. “I knew that if I didn’t try it then, I’d never risk it again,” he says of a move to Darlington Mowden Park in England’s National League One. “I was already playing in our national team but the environment was not as professional as now, the mentality was different.” His season in the north-east was productive and there were thoughts of a Premiership move for the young centre. Ultimately the lure of finishing his studies, along with the knowledge that a place on Portugal’s sevens team in the world circuit was his for the taking, held sway. He returned to the Lisbon club side CDUL, where he had started out at the age of six.
Appleton speaks perfect English but that has little to do with his surname, which dates back to a great-grandfather from Manchester. He is manifestly bright and hopes this autumn causes the wider world of Portuguese rugby to switch on. “We made a mistake in 2007 and didn’t take the opportunity to grow rugby in Portugal in the way it should,” he says. “We need to be at every World Cup, but at the base of the pyramid we require a strong club level and structure as a union. We need to change a few elements of that, create a professional league, and need a lot more coverage nationally, anything that will bring a lot more players to the sport.”
He points to a high attrition rate personified by his elder brother Francisco, who played alongside him for Portugal but eventually moved to London to work as a lawyer, keeping his hand in slightly by playing at lower levels around the capital. Rugby has long been viewed in Portugal as a sport enjoyed primarily by the elite and has not come close to emulating the cultural force of football. Greater accessibility and visibility are, he believes, crucial to the sport’s long-term health.
Clawing something from their games with Wales, Australia, Fiji and Georgia over the next three and a half weeks would help too. The target is to win at least one game, with the Georgians an obvious benchmark. A 46-20 win over the US in a warm-up match last month has bred optimism, particularly given the draw with the same opponents last November that ensured qualification for the France showpiece. Appleton cannot predict the future but he feels confident in promising entertainment.
“With our DNA we’re not physically the strongest players in the world,” he says. “But we’re really fast and people can expect a high-tempo game from us. We love to play quick, fast rugby with the backs getting plenty of quality ball to score with, and we’re going to show that at the World Cup.”
Sixteen of Portugal’s squad play in France, the homeland of their coach, Patrice Lagisquet, who won 46 caps on the wing for Les Bleus. He also oversees the Lusitanos representative team that have given Appleton and many of the domestic core experience of continental club rugby.
Perhaps the French factor will help in another way. There are thought to be more than a million Portuguese speakers in France, largely the result of migration in the 1960s and 1970s. When the 2007 World Cup was held there Portugal were thoroughly seen off but played to large, enthusiastic support. Appleton hopes more of the same will cow Warren Gatland’s men in Nice.
“Tickets sold out as soon as we qualified,” he says. “The Portuguese community here is massive and completely insane about both rugby and our country. I get so many messages from our immigrants cheering for us that I think, with that crowd behind us, it’s going to be tough for Wales.”
The roars of 35,000 people inside the Stade de Nice will bear little comparison to the dental surgery. But Appleton hopes Portugal treat the occasion with the kind of calmness reserved for the most delicate of operations; he feels ready for the biggest day of his career.
“It’s going to be one of the proudest moments of my life,” he says. “But we can’t get ahead of ourselves and let the emotions take over. We don’t do this for money, we do it for love of the game, the enjoyment of playing, and many of us are best friends. If we get too emotional, as has happened in the past, we’ll suffer. So, of course, it’s going to be incredible singing the anthem, and to lead this team, but we’re just focused on what we have to do as soon as the game starts. We’re here to compete, play our best rugby, start on the right foot and surprise the world if we can.”
