This is Portugal's sixth victory over Morocco in 13 encounters and by far the most important.

The ground at Stade Clube Olympique du Casablanca was not in good condition but the crowd did not cease in their support for the Lions of the Atlas.

In the first 20 minutes the Portuguese Wolves were on top and an easy victory seemed possible. The backs in particular performed smoothly and kept the Moroccans in trouble and pinned in their own 22.

But the visitors could not breach the home side's defence and gradually Morocco got into the match through their strong pack.

The score at half-time was 10-5. Each side scored a try but Portugal's Duarte Cardoso Pinto added a conversion to his try and a penalty goal.

All the scoring happened in a short  period towards the end of the first half. First Pinto kicked a penalty goal after 31 minutes. Four minutes later he scored and converted a try to put the visitors ahead 10-0.

Cardoso's penalty goal seemed to inspire the Portuguese who scored a brilliant try soon afterwards when Diogo Gama broke. Miguel Portela was in support and Cardoso scored the try which he converted.

A penalty well into injury time to the Moroccans gave them a five-metre line-out from which they formed a maul and drove over the line en masse. The try was attributed to No.8 Abdellatif Boutati. The conversion was missed and the half-time whistle went with the score 10-5.

The two teams meet again in Lisbon next Saturday and the winner over the two legs will go on to play Uruguay home and away for the right to go to France.

The Moroccan captain, who was not on the team list sent out by the Moroccan Rugby Federation, Jalil Narjissi, played and captained the team after all.

Teams:

Morocco: 15 Ouajdi Mouhcine, 14 Gharib Chahid, 13 Mihadji Tidjini, 12 Mouad Labbi, 11 Akram Rahili, 10 Arif Nassim, 9 Achahbar Adil, 8 Abdellatif Boutati, 7 Faycal Boukhanoussa, 6 Housni Hicham, 5 Younes Ho, 4 Hamid Arif, 3 Samir Amechatane, 2 Jalil Narjissi (captain), 1 Mohamed Gouasmia
Replacements (used): Youssef El Mir,  Mohamed Loukrassi, Ait Moussa Said, El Hajji Mounir

Coach: Claude Saurel

Portugal: 15 Pedro Leal, 14 Pedro Carvalho, 13 Diogo Gama, 12 Diogo Mateus, 11 Miguel Portela, 10 Cardoso Pinto, 9 Luís Pissarra, 8 Vasco Uva, 7 Juan Severin, 6 Paulo Murinello, 5 Marcello D’Orey, 4  Gonçalo Uva, 3 Joaquim Ferreira, 2 João Correia, 1 Rui Cordeiro.
Replacemenrs: 16 Paulo Santos, 17 Gustavo Duarte, 18 Pedro Vieira, 19 João Uva, 20 José Pinto, 21 Gonçalo Malheiro, 22 Adérito Esteves

Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Touch judges: Rob Debney, David Kurk (both England)

Portugal vs Morocco up until now

1968: Portugal vs Morocco,  6-6  in Lisbon
1969: Morocco vs Portugal,  15-6 in Casablanca
1970: Portugal vs Morocco,  8-9 in Barreiro
1982: Portugal vs Morocco,  7-26  in Lisbon
1985: Morocco vs Portugal,  6-12 in Rabat
1990: Portugal vs Morocco,  16-10 in Porto
1991: Morocco vs Portugal,  13-12 in Casablanca
1992: Portugal vs Morocco,  15-0  in Lisbon
1994: Morocco vs Portugal,  20-15 in Casablanca
1995: Portugal vs Morocco,  26-16  in Lisbon
1998: Morocco vs Portugal,  23-23 in Casablanca
2000: Portugal vs Morocco,  9-3  in Lisbon
2005: Morocco vs Portugal, 10-5 in Casablanca

Played 13. Morocco have won 5, Portugal 6, and 2 were drawn