Agronomia match shirt from 2018, made by Kappa with the Italian brand's repeated logo down the shoulders and the falcon crest on the chest, from a watershed period: the club had just lost one of the most controversial finals in Portuguese rugby history to Belenenses and was preparing its response, which would come with the 2018/19 national title. The sponsors tell their own story, led by the most fitting of them all: Lusosem, a seeds and crop protection company, backing the agronomists of the Tapada, alongside Silogia, Isuzu and Paulo Duarte transport. Portuguese university rugby dressed for the occasion.
Here at Hoopster, it’s the tip-off, rising onto the balls of the feet before the jump: the eve of a title I didn't yet know was coming.