Portugal’s French coach, Patrice Lagisquet, expects “a big fight”, a “tough battle” ahead against Georgia on Saturday (2 p.m.) in Toulouse, which is why he has significantly strengthened his bench in this sector, said – he confided Thursday at a press conference.

“I expect a big fight, a tough battle on Saturday,” he said when announcing his team with a bench of substitutes counting six forwards for only two and three-quarters.

“We are not used to this (…) but we know that we will need it, they (the Georgians, editor’s note) are trained to be able to maintain a high intensity level for 80 minutes, that is why we must to be able to raise ourselves to this level,” explained Lagisquet.

But “they don’t just have a big pack, they also have very fast backs,” he stressed, adding: “If we want to have even a small chance of winning, we have to do even better than against Wales.

For its first match of this 2023 World Cup, Portugal, in Group C, surprised by holding out against Wales, only really giving in at the end of the match (28-8).

Asked whether this match constituted a sort of final for these two teams in a group also including Australia and Fiji, Patrice Lagisquet gave it half-heartedly.

“At this stage of the competition, both teams can still qualify,” he first responded with a smile, before adding: “Yes, we can see it like that because it’s the team that we know best and then in terms of image, we can say to ourselves that it is the one against which we can compete the most.

On the Georgian side, coach Levan Maisashvili also admitted that it was “a bit of a final but it’s also only the beginning. We only played one match, even if we lost it (against Australia, 35-15, Editor’s note) but yes it’s an important match against Portugal.

Composition of the team of Portugal: Sousa Guedes – Storti, Bettencourt, Appleton, Marta – Portela (o), Marques (m) – Simoes, Martins, Granate – Cerqueira, Madeira – Ferreira, Tadjer, Fernandes

Remplaçants: Costa, Campergue, Alves, Belo, Wallis, de Freitas, Lucas, Cardoso Pinto

Composition de l’équipe de la Géorgie: Niniashvili – Tabutsadze, Kveseladze, Sharikadze (cap.), Todua – Abzhandadze (o), Aprasidze (m) – Gorgadze, Saginadze, Jalagonia – Mikautadze, Chachanidze – Gigashvili, Mamukashvili, Nariashvili

Replacements: Zamtaradze, Gogichashvili, Papidze, Cheishvili, Tsutskiridze, Lobzhanidze, Matkava, Tapladze