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https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/news\/major-names-culled-in-portugals-rugby-europe-championship\/ <\/p>\nmens<\/p>\n
rugby-europe-championship<\/p>\n
Anthony Alves of Portugal receives the applause from the crowd after their defeat during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 in the group C match between Wales and Portugal at Stade de Nice on September 16, 2023 in Nice, France. (Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images) https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/news\/major-names-culled-in-portugals-rugby-europe-championship\/ <\/p>\n
Simon Mannix has made some surprise inclusions and omissions in his selection for the upcoming Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship, with Portugal<\/a> kicking off the campaign in Brussels.<\/p>\n The Lobos will see the return of FC Grenoble<\/a> lock Jos\u00e9 Madeira, who was unavailable for the Autumn Internationals<\/a> due to injury. AS B\u00e9ziers-H\u00e9rault\u2019s Samuel Marques<\/a>, AEIS Agronomia\u2019s Manuel Cardoso Pinto<\/a> and GD Direito\u2019s Jo\u00e3o Granate are also back in the national squad.<\/p>\n However, in the opposite direction, Valence-Romans\u2019 Joris Moura<\/a>, US Montauban\u2019s Maixent da Costa, GD Direito\u2019s David Costa<\/a> and Orl\u00e9ans lock Steevy Cerqueira<\/a> will not be offering their services to the Lobos. Moura, da Costa and Cerqueira are currently recovering from injury, while Costa has been suspended for three games after being red-carded in the Portuguese Divis\u00e3o de Honra.<\/p>\n Tom\u00e1s Appleton is also in doubt, with the Lobos captain having sustained an injury while playing for CDUL. The Portuguese union has not provided any update regarding his return to action.<\/p>\n As for omissions, for the third international window in a row, SU Agen<\/a> wing Lucas Martins<\/a> has not been named in the squad. The youngest Martins sibling has been in good form for Agen, scoring six tries in 13 games, but it was not enough to convince Portugal\u2019s staff to add him to the list.<\/p>\n World Cup stars Anthony Alves<\/a> and Jos\u00e9 Lima have also failed to make the initial cut, although there is a chance they could return in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n Portugal finished fourth in the previous Men\u2019s Rugby Europe Championship, suffering a 14-point defeat to their Stejarii rivals, their worst result in the competition since 2022.<\/p>\n Portugal\u2019s poor run in 2025 ultimately meant being drawn into the same pool as Scotland, Ireland<\/a> and Uruguay, which could result in an early exit from the competition.<\/p>\n With hopes of returning to their 2023 form, the Lobos are targeting a Rugby Europe Championship<\/a> final, but to do so they will have to overcome Belgium, Germany<\/a> and Romania<\/a> over the next three weeks.<\/p>\n Portugal\u2019s initial Rugby Europe Championship squad:<\/p>\n Props: Afonso Tapadinhas<\/a> (GD Direito), Ant\u00f3nio Prim (GD Direito), Cody Lee Thomas (FC Grenoble), Diogo Hasse Ferreira<\/a> (US Dax), Jos\u00e9 Lavos (GDS Cascais), Lu\u00eds Lopes (GD Direito), Martim Souto<\/a> (Aurillac) and Pedro Vicente<\/a> (AEIS Agronomia).<\/p>\n Hookers: Luka Begic<\/a> (Stade Montois), Santiago Lopes (GDS Cascais) and Nuno Mascarenhas<\/a> (GDS Cascais).<\/p>\n Locks: Andr\u00e9 da Cunha (CF \u2018Os Belenenses\u2019), Pedro Ferreira<\/a> (GD Direito), Duarte Torgal<\/a> (GD Direito), Guilherme Costa<\/a> (T\u00e9cnico Rugby), Duarte Nunes<\/a> (GD Direito) and Martim Bello (GDS Cascais).<\/p>\n Back row: David Wallis (CF \u2018Os Belenenses\u2019), Diego Pinheiro Ruiz<\/a> (Provence Rugby), Jo\u00e3o Granate (GD Direito), Jos\u00e9 Monteiro (El Salvador), Manuel Fati<\/a> (SL Benfica), Vasco Baptista<\/a> (CF \u2018Os Belenenses\u2019) and Nicol\u00e1s Martins (US Colomiers).<\/p>\n Scrum half: Samuel Marques<\/a> (AS B\u00e9ziers-H\u00e9rault), Hugo Camacho (AS B\u00e9ziers-H\u00e9rault), Ant\u00f3nio Campos (SL Benfica), Pedro Lucas<\/a> (T\u00e9cnico Rugby) and Tom\u00e1s Amado (Agronomia Rugby).<\/p>\n Fly half: Hugo Aubry<\/a> (AS B\u00e9ziers-H\u00e9rault), Domingos Cabral<\/a> (AEIS Agronomia), Tom\u00e1s Marques (CR Tondela) and Manuel Vareiro<\/a> (Provence Rugby).<\/p>\n Centres: Rodrigo Marta<\/a> (US Colomiers), Tom\u00e1s Appleton (CDUL), Guilherme Vasconcelos<\/a> (CDUL) and Alfredo Almeida<\/a> (GDS Cascais).<\/p>\n Outside backs: Diogo Rodrigues<\/a> (CF \u2018Os Belenenses\u2019), Manuel Cardoso Pinto (AEIS Agronomia), Martim Faro<\/a> (CDUL), Nuno Sousa Guedes<\/a> (CDUP), Raffaele Storti<\/a> (FC Grenoble), Sim\u00e3o Bento (Stade Montois), Vasco Leite<\/a> (AEIS Agronomia) and Vincent Pinto<\/a> (US Colomiers).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"mens rugby-europe-championship Anthony Alves of Portugal receives the applause from the crowd after their defeat during the Rugby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-445263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}