I can go for one year and if I don’t like it I can always go back,” he said. “I thought it would help me grow up, learn the language and the culture.”But first came the culture shock – on and off the pitch. “The first game we had at home was against Preston in pre-season and I thought: ‘Oh my God, what is this?’ The stadium was full and everyone was singing It was unbelievable, a fantastic atmosphere,” he recalled It was not untypical. “Then, in our first League game, we were at Rochdale and we arrived with 2,000 fans.

It’s five hours from Yeovil! It’s just unbelievable that so many of them travelled.” They had, of course, waited a long time.The players, he said, display a similar commitment. “The speed of the game is higher than in Portugal,” he explained “The concentration is higher. If a team is losing 4-0 in Portugal, they give up, the game is finished Here the teams always try to score, even just one Also the referee doesn’t stop the games so much. Here you never try and do something against the rules – in Portugal if a player dives and wins a free-kick he is seen as clever, here he’s a cheat.”The first few months were spent on the substitutes’ bench – partly because Yeovil’s manager, Gary Johnson, wanted him to “watch and learn” but also because the team were winning while playing three at the back and there was no room for the new guy in the centre.”It was frustrating because, of course, I wanted to play,” he said.

Things were made harder because he was in a new country, living on his own and away from home for the first time. “So it was a shock to me,” he said, admitting that many hours were spent talking to relatives and friends through an internet webcam “But after two months I began to get used to it Now it’s all right.”Yeovil is – of course – a small town “Everyone seems to know each other,” he said. And at his height he obviously stands out – quickly becoming something of a cult figure for supporters “In the town centre they talk to you,” Rodrigues said “And they all come to see the games I’ve been to other places such as Rotherham… but I didn’t like it there.”And so to the FA Cup – and Liverpool. Only playing Manchester United – his favourite English team and the next opponents for Porto, of course, in the Champions’ League – would have meant more “It’s a fantastic draw,” Rodrigues said “Everyone knows Liverpool Michael Owen, Emile Heskey, all the players. They are not doing well this season for a team like Liverpool, who always want to be winning the title.

But you have to respect Michael Owen – he’s one of the best strikers in the world.”Nevertheless, Rodrigues is undaunted – and prides himself, despite his height, on an athleticism and pace developed through gymnastics and swimming as a child “That helped develop my co-ordination,” he explains. “I’m told that I walk and run normally because the majority of tall people have difficulty in making some of their movements It’s a big advantage to me when I’m playing. There was no bitterness, but someone or something had to give because, as Stuart-Smith points out: “I knew that this season, after the World Cup, if I had stayed at Gloucester Gomarsall would be back in the starting XV and I would be missing out on the experience I need to develop.”As a former England scrum-half himself, Nigel Melville was extremely helpful to me when I was at Kingsholm. Silverware is the aim because when a side wins, everyone wants to be associated with it.Everyone loves a winner, particularly the money men. So when a coach has two scrum-halves in his squad, one of them an England international, Gomarsall, the other a teenage rookie, Stuart-Smith, it does not take a committee to work out who plays and who gets to sit on the bench.Last season, Stuart-Smith started two Premiership games, came on as a replacement four times (once going on to the wing) and spent a further 17 matches watching from the bench. As captain of the England Under-19 team a couple of seasons ago, he caught the eye with his assured approach.