After beating England for the first time in history, and with Fiji and the eventual 2010 Dubai Sevens champions locked at 21-21 after the hooter had sounded in the final Pool D match, Portugal looked destined for the Cup quarter finals in the opening leg of the 2010/11 HSBC Sevens World Series.
As it was, replacement Simon Hunt's try sent England through to the quarter finals on points differential, with Portugal moving into the Bowl competition where they lost both of their matches on day two.
Having come so close to reaching a Cup quarter final in Dubai, head coach Tomaz Morais is targeting more at the South Africa Sevens in George, with the disappointment from Dubai acting as motivation when the tournament begins on 10 December.
"We beat England for the first time in our lives and it was our best ever game of Sevens," said Morais.
"We played really well in defence and offence but we were unlucky because England beat Fiji in the last second of the game and after an historic day for us, the boys were a little sad. In the second day we played bad."
Frederico Oliveira had scored his second try of the match at the death against England to tie the scores at 12-12, before Pedro Leal held his nerve with the conversion to spark wild celebrations at 7he Sevens.
England Sevens coach Ben Ryan, speaking after their narrow victory over Fiji, added: "Portugal deserved absolutely everything [against us]. They were good for their win. I think they have an excellent side and Tomaz Morais is one of the best coaches on the circuit and I think they will be pretty disappointed that they didn't scrape into the quarter finals."
Getting the smile back
Disappointed is one word, but Morais is looking at the positives, a first win over England, victory against France and competitive against Fiji, but their heads dropped and he needs to ensure there is no further backlash in South Africa.
"It is Sevens. At the moment we can beat any team here in the tournament but we were disappointed in Dubai because we beat England, we beat France and we played well in the first half against Fiji.
"Our objective was the Cup quarter finals, but we missed the Cup, and then, I don’t know why, we went down. The team played without a smile on their faces on the second day.
"We had a good day yesterday. A short gym session with intensity and now the boys have a smile again. We have a tough pool against South Africa, Argentina and Zimbabwe, but we have a good possibility to play in the Cup."
The smile will be back on their faces if they reach the Cup quarter finals in George, but they will now have to record their first ever victory over either South Africa or Argentina if they are to stand any chance of doing so and face Zimbabwe, who will be backed by the crowd at the Outeniqua Stadium.
"It is not easy for us but we like games like that, tough games, with the public support for the home team, but the boys are prepared to do their best in George.
"The field is very special, very very good, it is soft and so special because it is not a big stadium. It is small where the people are doing everything for South Africa and it is a special game for us.
"In our last game against the Springboks we lost by just two points, 7-5, so we don’t know, we could always have another first time."
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Video - Portugal star in opening day victory over England
