Australia vs Portugal Predictions - Portugal to get close against frail Wallabies

Australia and Portugal have never met before.

Australia are comfortably at their lowest-ever point in Rugby Union. They stand on the brink of a group exit at the Rugby World Cup for the first time in their history.

After beating Georgia 35-15 in their opener, things were looking up for the Aussies. They however followed it up with a 22-15 defeat to Fiji which really put the cat amongst the pigeons.

They entered their match against Wales last weekend knowing they simply must win. They made a decent start to the game performance-wise but gradually fell away, losing 40-6 in a record loss.

The Wallabies are all but out of the World Cup. The best they can do is hope for a bonus point win over Portugal and for Georgia and Portugal to beat Fiji. That could still see them through, however, that sounds unlikely given the Fijian's performance.

It is unclear who Eddie Jones will pick for this fixture. I expect him to go close to full strength as he will want to avoid another embarrassing defeat on his CV.

Portugal have been so impressive at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. This is only their second-ever World Cup appearance after 2007.

They lost 28-8 to Wales in their opening fixture but were in the game for large periods. Portugal plays an exciting brand of rugby which certainly caught Wales off guard.

Portugal backed it up with an 18-all draw against Georgia last time out. They almost won it with the last kick of the game too. With two games to go, Portugal will want to give Australia a big performance given how low the opponents are at the moment.

I don’t expect many changes to the Portugal side.