Group C

Special day out for special ones

New Zealand 108-13 Portugal

It may sound improbable but Saturday's outwardly irrelevant events in Lyon could easily transform the future of rugby union. Yes, Portugal received a predictable hiding and New Zealand, in relative terms, barely broke sweat. But, if ever a scoreline told only a fraction of the story, this was it.

Try telling a sun-soaked crowd of more than 40,000 they had wasted their money. Portugal played like 15 Jose Mourinhos: spirited, feisty, undeterred by the occasion. Afterwards, they shared a beer with their All Black opposite numbers with mutual respect happily intact.

And before the International Rugby Board decide whether to reduce participants from 20 to 16, they should heed the views of the respective coaches, Tomaz Morais and Graham Henry, who both saw the occasion as strengthening the case for retaining the current structure.

The pair share a common belief that the game will be the poorer if those outside the traditional elite are pushed away. Morais, in particular, totally rejects the notion that conceding a century of points is bad for the development of the game in Portugal. "It was a great day for rugby as a whole and we all came back survivors," he said. "Everyone in our country is now talking about the game, and to promote rugby you have to allow the smaller countries to play against the bigger ones."

Henry expressed similar sentiments - "They'll go home a better rugby team . . . I've no problem with a 20-team tournament" - after watching his team set a record for the number of individual try-scorers in a World Cup match. There were 16 All Black tries in total, but Portugal also realised their twin aims of avoiding a tournament record defeat and crossing the Kiwi line, their replacement prop Rui Cordeiro, a 21-stone vet, crashing over from short range in the 48th minute.

New Zealand Muliana (MacDonald, 7); Toeava, Smith, Mauger, Rokocoko; Evans, Leonard (Ellis, 54); Tialata, Hore (Oliver, 57), Somerville (Woodcock, 60), Williams (So'oialo, 54), Jack (Hayman, 50), Collins (Mealamu, 64), Masoe, Lauaki.

Tries Rokocoko 2, Toeava, Williams, Mauger 2, Collins, Masoe, Hore, Leonard, Evans, Ellis, MacDonald, Smith 2, Hayman. Cons Evans 14.

Portugal Leal; Aguilar, Portela, Mateus, Carvalho; Malheiro (D C Pinto, h-t), Pissarra (J Pinto, h-t), Silva (Cordeiro, h-t), Spachuk, D'Orey (Penalva, 27), G Uva, Coutinho (Girao, 44), Murinello (J Uva, 51), V Uva (capt; Ferreira, 53).

Try Cordeiro. Con D C Pinto. Pen D C Pinto. Drop-goal Malheiro.

Referee C White (England). Attendance 40,729.

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