RUGBY MATTERS
BRENDAN GALLAGHER

A weekly look at the game’s other talking points

The ProD2 Twitter account – sorry X account – conveyed congratulations earlier this week to the 11 Portugal squad players who play in the League not to mention the four who ply their trade in the feeder National 1 League and indeed even down to the Federale Divisions.
That inspired me to conduct a quick head count and I make it 32 professionals from the ProD2 have appeared at this World Cup and another 14 from those other lower leagues which is quite something. Put that alongside the 104 Top 14 players who ha...