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Rugby is a growing sport in Portugal, but it is still a long distance from football. The sport is essentially amateur in Portugal, with some semi-professionals in the national rugby union team. The rugby union teams in Portugal are mostly university teams, being the main ones from Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, with multi-sport clubs like Benfica and Belenenses having rugby union collectivities.

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The origins of Portuguese rugby go back over a century. It was first played in 1903 at Cruz Quebrada on the outskirts of Lisbon. However, it was only in 1922 that the game began to be organised on a formal basis.

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In 1927, the clubs of Benfica, the Royal Football Club, Carcavelinhos, Ginásio and Sporting came together to form the Portuguese Rugby Federation. In many cases, the players were students, or ex-students, some of whom had encountered the game abroad.

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The Portuguese Rugby Federation

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In the 1950s Portuguese rugby was heavily influenced by French rugby.

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In the 1990s Portugal managed to double its number of registered players from around 3,000 to around 6,000 and started participating in the rugby World Cup.

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The Rugby World Cup

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The Portuguese rugby team managed to get into the 2007 Rugby World Cup - the first all amateur team to do so since professionalisation. They were the only new team in the tournament, since all the rest had appeared in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and they got there by knocking out Uruguay.

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In 2008 the Portuguese Rugby Federation, the Spanish Rugby Federation, the Gibraltar rugby authority and various clubs agreed to the formation of a Liga Superibérica (Super Iberian League), it will operate on a diferente season from the main leagues.

Authors: Madalena Barbosa and Tiago Araújo