page_title: Rugby union in Portugal
section_title: Present day
hierarchical_section_title: Rugby union in Portugal / History / Present day
caption_attribution_description: English: U14 - CRUP Português: SUB14 - CRUP
context_page_description: Rugby union in Portugal is a growing sport, though still a long distance from association football. The sport is essentially amateur in Portugal, with some degree of semi-professionalisation in its top flight league and the national rugby union team. The rugby union teams in Portugal are mostly university sides, from Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra, with multi-sport clubs like Benfica and Belenenses having rugby union collectivities.
context_section_description: Portuguese rugby continues to hover around the 6,000 mark, but the main aim at the moment is to improve the national infrastructure, which has partly paid off, since the Portuguese rugby team managed to get into the 2007 Rugby World Cup - the first all amateur team to do so since professionalisation. They were the only new team in the tournament, since all the rest had appeared in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and they got there by knocking out Uruguay.
  In 2008 the Portuguese Rugby Federation, the Spanish Rugby Federation, the Gibraltar rugby authority and various clubs agreed to the formation of a Liga Superibérica (Super Iberian League), which will operate on a franchise system (similar to rugby league's Super League or Japan's bj league of basketball). The new league shall operate with 5 Spanish clubs, 4 Portuguese, and one from Gibraltar. It will operate on a different season from the main leagues.
  Because Portugal is a popular holiday destination for people from the United Kingdom and Ireland, with reasonably priced flights etc., it has emerged as a popular tour destination.
caption: Schools development rugby
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