Samuel Marques

At the beating heart of everything for Portugal is this scrum-half- and beware his boot

- Alan Dymock

SNEAKINESS IS a vital part of any scrum-half’s arsenal, like a box kick or a bark. The very best, well, they’ll find a way to clown you. And Portugal nine Samuel Marques is more than happy to find you a red nose.

“Sam is an extremely intelligent player,” explains former Scotland cap Rob Harley, who played with Marques last season in Carcassonne. “He will quick-tap and speed up the game but is equally willing to control tempo, if that is what suits the game better. He’s also willing to exploit players off-balance at rucks – lying on the wrong side – for penalties. He has deceptive power too.

“He won multiple turnovers last year because bigger players ran at him and then they had the ball ripped out from them clean. He has balls of steel.”