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Lobos wearing big smiles

No Entry: Rob Dewey is stopped in his tracks by the plucky Portuguese

Portugal coach Tomáz Morais reckons he could not have asked for more from his players in their 52-10 defeat to Scotland in Saint Etienne on Sunday.

The lowly Lobos were competing in their first World Cup match and defied all expectations by scoring a try, through Pedro Carvalho, before succumbing to the might of the Scots.

"It was the best we have ever played as a team and we are very proud of the game we played," said Morais.

"It was as good as we had hoped for. We wanted to show we had excellent spirit and we could put on a good show.

"We hope in the future we can get better results because today we committed some mistakes which gave easy tries, but we never gave up.

"We need more games like this, we need to learn - some of the tries scored against us were due to our lack of experience at this level."

Portugal captain Vasco Uva was delighted his team, comprised largely of amateur players, did not let themselves down on the big stage.

"We wanted to score more tries, but we came to the World Cup to show we are good enough and I think we did that," said the number eight.

"We showed we have a good team and we worked very hard. When we walked onto the pitch, it was very proud moment, and at no point did we feel alone.

"We knew it was going to be a physical game, because we are not used to the power Scotland have. But we got through the 80 minutes without giving up."