1
Watch: Battering Banahan goes beast mode to set up spectacular try
By Online Editors
Gloucester wing Matt Banahan proved just why he is one of rugby's toughest men to cover in his side's 24-22 Champions Cup loss to Castres on Saturday.
Listed at 6'7" and 110kg, the 32-year-old made his presence felt in setting up a spectacular counter-attacking try and helping Gloucester build on an early lead.
Fielding a kick from Castres wing Armand Batlle, Banahan collected the ball at full speed and set off down-field from inside his own half.
Using his size and pace, Banahan went straight over the top of Castres fullback Scott Spedding and drew the attention of two more defenders before slipping away a difficult grubber kick.
Gloucester halfback Ben Vellacott won the race to the ball and slid over the line for Gloucester's second try, capping an incredible counter attacking effort.
Banahan has long been one of the Premiership's most prolific scorers, but Saturday proved he can set them up just as well as anyone.
Unfortunately for Banahan's Gloucester, the end result didn't go their way, with Castres number eight Maama Vaipulu crashing over after the final whistle to steal victory.
With the match decided and both sides eliminated from playoff contention, Vaipulu's back row mate 35-year-old Yannick Caballero had a crack at the conversion to end his team's campaign on a high.
Castres finished with a record of 3-3 in the pool to Gloucester's 2-4 with the 24-22 victory. Munster topped the pool and advance to the quarterfinals with a record of four wins, one loss and a draw.
Rugby World Cup City Guides - Fukuoka:
Trending on RugbyPass
2
All Blacks XV player ratings vs Munster
3
Suaalii strikes awe as Wallabies lose midfielder
4
Scott Robertson responds about handling errors
5
Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
Go to comments