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As Lagisquet exits Portugal a 2-man shortlist emerges

Portugal Head Coach Patrice Lagisquet looks on during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Australia and Portugal at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on October 01, 2023 in Saint-Etienne, France. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Esteban Meneses and Simon Mannix are in the race for Portugal’s head coach vacancy, with the decision to be made in the upcoming weeks.

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Fifty-two-year-old New Zealander Simon Mannix is currently coaching the French ProD2 side, Biarritz, after spells in Section Paloise, Singapore, and RC Bassin D’Arcachon, and he is seen as a credible choice due to his knowledge of France’s elite competitions, a central player pool for the present and future of the Lobos setup.

Esteban Meneses has been working for the past three months with the Portuguese Rugby Union, having joined it alongside Rodolfo Ambrósio and Daniel Hourcade as members of the staff, helping interim coach João Mirra in the Men’s Rugby Europe Championship 2024. His expertise as a national head coach and profound knowledge of the Emerging Nation environment are viewed as ideal to take on the job, but the process is far from being concluded.

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Richard Cockerill on facing RWC darlings Portugal

Richard Cockerill on the dangers of facing the attacking threats of Portugal

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Richard Cockerill on facing RWC darlings Portugal

Richard Cockerill on the dangers of facing the attacking threats of Portugal

More rumours about Patrice Lagisquet’s exit have been doing the rounds, but one thing is clear: the legendary Les Bleus player won’t be available to guide Portugal through another World Cup qualification.

Portugal Rugby Union president Carlos Amado da Silva revealed in a recent interview to Radio Alfa that “There were two and now three possible names to take the head coach job. They aren’t French, but they are based there and have deep knowledge about the Top14, ProD2, and the other French competitions.”

Portugal has been without a head coach since last October when Sébastien Bertrank resigned just two weeks after signing with the Lobos. With challenging Summer and Autumn windows on the horizon – the Springboks and Namibia in July, and Scotland, USA, and Samoa in November – the board will announce in the upcoming weeks who’s going to take Patrice Lagisquet’s mantle and guide the team in the race to earn a spot in the 2027 Rugby World Cup.

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M
Mzilikazi 227 days ago

Simon Mannix I met a few years ago when he was with Pau. He did pretty well there with a club that often struggles. He played once for the AB’s, at 10, and the game was lost to the French. He said that loss still haunts him.

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JW 56 minutes ago
How can Scott Robertson revive the All Blacks’ playmaking ‘triple threat’?

Love how you stoke up the fire with these slow burners Nick, great time to let the air into this one too coming into Jordies new home for a few months.


Razor (and possibly Cullen?) is the perfect coach to keep fueling Jordies own flame. Foster on the other hand has to be a people person because he's always trying to douse everyones due to his own lack of enterprise.


I didn't want to nark on the man but we still have Reiks waiting to be ignited as well. His own play when he first moved to center was full of threat and tact. He could cut in just as easily as swing out and had some great ball handling to put people away with. While we haven't seen much more of that since, I think he has at least been working hard on his defence and his books under Foster and Schmidt, and could turn into a Conrad (or even Nonu) one day. I'm not quite so sure Jordie has been making the same progress in the meantime.


I've been really happy with Jordies workons this year however, but that Final was a big learning curve and I've not really sure I've seen the calmness required to pull off Nonu type plays through his career so far. In fact he has often been the opposite and been a bit ropey when he was in more of a playmaker role at 15, I do think he has all the skills and desire to make these sorts of plays though, just having such a wide scope as a 'triple' threat put's a big demand on being able to read the game. So perhaps I might not go too much further than trying to use that big boot, and keeping it simple really. Like Nonu did.


I'm happy with all those 10 and 15 pictures myself, especially the ones where Jordan is playing more of a hand. He is someone who certainly could do with some sort of 'double' threat to help his line breaking ability and I certainly think he has some sort of innate skill to do the right thing. Sadly it's not going to happen in conjunction with Beaudie I don't think. This is going to be retirement. 2nd start back playing with his old courage (he actually did run the ball after all) and he's concussed again, not good.


Trouble is for this team, it could be a completely different 10, 12, 13. That shouldn't stop Razor from encouraging all the options the All Blacks have in those positions, right now. Also looking forward to Perofeta coming into fullback late instead of BB or Dmac going there.

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