By Ben Nimmo Sep 15, 2007, 16:01 GMT
Porto, Portugal - The Portuguese may play rugby, but it is not something they tend to talk about.
'Rugby? Oh no, we love football. We're really good at football,' architecture student Maria do Rosario said, only minutes before the Portuguese national rugby team kicked off in Lyon for the greatest game of their careers, against the New Zealand All Blacks.
'Rugby? I don't know. Football is the popular game here,' said graduate and tour guide Nuno Soares, when asked if any bars in Porto, northern Portugal, would be showing the match.
As the clocks counted down towards the midday kick-off, Porto slumbered in bright September sunshine.
Children played in the shadow of teetering baroque tenements or rode mountain bikes down the crazy cobbles, while their parents sat in the shade and watched the world stroll by.
In a town which drapes itself in red-and-green Portuguese flags for every outing of the national football team, their country's near-miraculous presence in the greatest rugby show on Earth seems to have passed almost without attention.
It is a far cry from New Zealand, where rugby regularly brings the nation to a standstill.
With the All Blacks once again favourites to lift the Webb Ellis trophy, neither the darkness of midnight nor the chill of winter were enough to keep their fans from watching the game.
Ever since New Zealand won the inaugural World Cup in 1987, the nation has expected its team to repeat the feat - expectations that have been repeatedly dashed.
This year they are favourites to reclaim the trophy at last, while the odds on Portugal winning stand at 2,500 to 1.
That mismatch became brutally apparent on the pitch, as the All Blacks ran in 16 tries for a thumping 108-13 victory.
But if Portugal's players seem to be without much honour in their own country, that is certainly not the case anywhere else.
Portugal's largely amateur team, which has never contested a World Cup before, has won acclaim from commentators around the world for the sheer fervour with which it plays.
'I've never seen a team honour their national flag with so much pride and passion,' New Zealand writer Donna Gee wrote on the All Blacks' website after Portugal played Scotland last weekend.
'Tremendous credit to the Portuguese, it was obviously a cup final for them. They never gave up and were incredibly tenacious throughout,' Scotland coach Frank Hadden agreed, commenting on his side's 56-10 win.
While New Zealand will certainly look on anything other than victory in the World Cup as a failure, the Portuguese have made it clear that as far as they are concerned, victory, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Before Saturday's match, the team reportedly said that losing by anything less than 100 points would be a moral win.
After the game, Portugal coach Tomaz Morais radiated pride as he said, 'We couldn't resist their physicality, but we played rugby from the very first minute to the very last.'
And while relatively few people in Portugal seem aware of their country's rugby achievement, in New Zealand, where the game matters most, there is no doubt as to its importance.
'We started a little slower than last week, and that was credit to the Portuguese,' admitted All Black coach Graham Henry, a man who is not renowned for being easy to impress, after the game.
Portugal's amateurs may not have set the flags of Porto flying, but those words alone make Saturday a moral victory.
Your Talkback on this Story