KEY POINTS:
For much of this week Portugal have been tucked away in the small village of Chambon-sur-Lignon, 950m above sea level and several hours' drive south of Lyon.
It has been cool, about 8C according to the team, and nothing like the blast furnace they will face when they
switch from obscurity to centre stage in Lyon for their Saturday night meeting with the All Blacks.
Instead of dreading a scoreboard blowout or listening to talk from the All Blacks that they will be "sensitive" to the inferior quality of the World Cup minnows, 'Os Lobos' are revved up about the match.
Honour, privilege and pride are expressions bursting from their conversation while spokesman Rafael Pereira says his side are thrilled to be drawn for this historic test against the tournament favourites.
"And please," he says, "do not write things that I have read before that we will be putting a 'B' team out against the All Blacks. That would insult us and them.
"We will be choosing our best side, because this is not only a big honour for the players but also for Portugal. It is very important we play our top team and the training has been very willing because they all want to be picked."
There have been difficulties as coach Tomaz Morais returned home the day after his side's opening game against Scotland because his daughter had taken ill. But he is expected to rejoin the side for the game at Stade de Gerland.
The favoured Portugal XV was going to be revealed today after the side left its alpine headquarters and travelled by bus to Lyon. It was an announcement the team's most capped player, Joaquim Ferreira, waited for as keenly as his first cap 15 years ago.
"This is my last tournament, I am 34 now and getting too tired for this level but it will be a great way to finish," he says.
Ferreira has played most of his international and club rugby as a prop but was picked as hooker against Scotland.
Like the bulk of his teammates, he is an amateur, who works in Porto in a textile agency. There are five players in the squad who are involved professionally in France and three Argentines who are contracted to play their rugby in Portugal, where about 4000 players are involved with 30 clubs.
"This is hard for us because we are not used to spending so much time away from our families," says Ferreira, who has played 85 times for his country.
"But this will be great, we have to enjoy the tournament. Most of us who have stopped work for the World Cup have got some small funding from our national union, sort of a daily allowance, not much," he says.
Asked how his pack will go against the resurgent All Blacks scrum and whether they expect some mercy, Ferreira says that is all in the future, he cannot worry about it.
"We are just looking at this as a chance to play against the most professional side in the world, it is historic for us and we all want to be part of it.
"We want to leave the match with our heads up. We understand how tough it will be but we want to finish the game having given everything. We were happy we did that against the Scots though we thought we might have scored a couple more tries [in the 56-10 loss]."
Rugby would never overtake soccer's popularity back home in Portugal but before and after they qualified for the World Cup on aggregate against Uruguay in Montevideo, there had been increased reporting on Os Lobos in the newspapers and television.
That away leg was broadcast live on television while the home match in Lisbon had a capacity 5000 crowd.
In their first World Cup, Portugal are targeting victory in their final match in a 16-day stretch against Romania. However, impressive No 8 and captain Vasco Uva warns that his side has only beaten Romania once in many meetings.
When Portugal set out on their qualifying odyssey in 2003 they had grandiose ideas they might get into the Six Nations at some stage but a massive 83-0 defeat against Italy shattered that illusion.
The 24-year-old Uva is a lawyer on six months' leave from his Lisbon employers during which time he hopes to make enough of an impression to pick up a club contract in England or France, like his locking brother Goncalco, who is contracted to Montpellier.
Cousin Jaoa is a flanker, underlining that rugby is a family business in Portugal. Utility back Antonio Aguilar follows his father into the sport, halfback Luis Pissarra's father also played.
Australian Adam Leach, who left his last job with Tonga, has been on IRB secondment to coach the Portugal pack for the past two months.
"Technically, they needed some assistance," he said before the World Cup. "They want to play, play, play, but there were loads of mistakes. I'm just trying to do something with the set piece, organise the defence. They're fantastic students of the game. I don't want to stop the way they want to play."
