With ten Guinness Premiership tries in his first full season, Bath’s Matt Banahan was the English wing sensation last term.
He spoke to Alex Mead…
Hey Matt, how’s things?
Not bad, yourself?
Not bad as it happens. What you been up to?
It’s my first week back at training so it’s been flat out this week. The first three days were really tough but yesterday [last Thursday] was alright.
What sort of stuff have you been up?
We’ve got a new fitness guy called Paul Bunce and he’s been doing a lot of speed stuff, strong man events, power stuff – also looking at ways to make you lift your body in faster and quicker ways.
Who’s been the best at the strong man events?
Erm, wouldn’t know, I’ve only been here a week but Peter Short does lift a lot more than anyone else generally. Joe Maddock’s got good power to weight ratio too.
Did you manage to get away after the Saxons tour?
I just went home back to Jersey which is a holiday destination in itself. I went back with my girlfriend and two dogs, played golf for the first days, went down the beach with my brother and spent a lot of time with my girlfriend. Because rugby takes up so much time, she gets the backlash and we don’t get much time together so it was good to make up for that a bit.
And the dogs always seem fairly important too..
Yeah, they’re at home now tearing the place up. One’s still a puppy – he’s a beagle rescure dog and a bit of a wild child. The other one’s a five-month old great dane, she’s more placid although she’s chewing at the walls at the moment – which is handy because we’re changing the wallpaper anyhow.
The country life in Bath must suit you…
I love it down here, it’s very relaxing off the field which balances well because on the field it’s so intense. In London, it can be intense where you live too so you can’t get away from it. Right now I’m living outside of Bath in a small village in the countryside. You get peace and quiet here – it’s the kind of place where you can leave the doors open.
Onto the rugby, not a bad campaign for you…
It was a good season to come into the first team, Bath were playing some good rugby, I just sort of came in at the right time. I was developing as a player throughout and the main thing now is to come back and do it again.
Which will be tough as they know what you can do…
It will be a lot harder but there are parts of my game I’m going to work on that I can come back with a bit more of a bang.
Such as?
Transferring my weight sideways and working on more of a step so that I can cause more problems – people just expect me to run straight.
You tend to draw a few defenders though…
If anyone is playing well opponents always put two players on them, it doesn’t matter what size you are. The unfortunate thing is it does stop you scoring – not to mention hurt your back – when you’ve got two or three players on you. But you are creating space for others by taking defenders away. People who really look close to a game see that and don’t just judge you by the amount of tries. Besides the first thing you have to do is stop the opposition scoring tries, then when you do get a sniff of a chance you have to take it – like Bryan Habana does.
Habana eh? Which other wings do you look up to?
I look at all international wingers and try to put a bit of what they can do into my own game. But I want to be my own winger, bring something new to the field. I get compared to Jonah Lomu just because of my size but I want to do something different…
And yet you’re only a recent convert to the back three?
People forget that at school I played full-back. But then I stopped playing rugby and when I came back I was quite a bit taller so I played for Jersey at six or eight, the same with London Irish. It was while I was with the national academy working with Brian Ashton that he said I had the attributes to be a winger with a bit of tweaking. He then signed me for Bath just before he left to go full-time with England. I’d been fairly quiet before last season because I was just learning, but then I got more into the groove and took my chances.
You certainly got plenty of rave reviews…
I don’t watch anything or read anything on myself and I’m going to keep it like. I don’t want to hear the negative or the positive.
You must get recognised a bit more though?
People say my name and I’ll speak to them. My brother [Paul] never lets me get big-headed, he always ensures I keep my feet on the ground.
What sort of player is he?
He’s up at Waterloo, he plays ten or 12 but he’s tiny, he’s only 5ft 8in.
Was it tough finishing last season’s league campaign, empty-handed?
It is frustrating because we trained and played so hard throughout year. But we know it doesn’t matter what you do throughout year, it’s the play-offs that count, Wasps and Leicester have proved that over the last five or six years. Our aim was to qualify for the Heineken Cup though and we did that and we won some silverware with the Challenge Cup.
That must have been a big monkey off a few players’ backs?
There was a lot of relief, you could see that the boys who played final the year before really didn’t to lose two finals in two years.
And the Saxons in the Churchill Cup, how was that?
It was great to be with a squad such as that, I’ve never played with so many talented players. It was nerve wracking before the games too as I’d never sung the national anthem. But I just tried to play my natural game and luckily enough I managed to score three tries in my first, two in my second and one in my third. It was good…
On a totally different topic, apparently you’re a bit of hockey player…
Yeah, I’m better at hockey than I am at rugby.
Really?
I played it seriously when I was younger with England at under-18/19. Then my mates at college got me into rugby, then I got signed within six months.
Six months?
Yeah it was quick thing.
Presumably you’re not allowed to play hockey anymore?
No, not at all, although last season I went back and coached the Channel Islands county team and had a few hits. I still haven’t lost it, which was a good thing. I’ve tried to transfer my hockey strike into golf, but I keep getting a nasty hook into it.
You’re also a bit YouTube star…
It was one of my brother’s friend’s boss’s kids who put it on [a video of Banahan landing a few in a local derby match in Jersey] and I only found out about it six months after he put it on. You learn from things like that in life. I basically stuck up for a mate you do that on the pitch and it was a big game with a lot of tension – it happens…
Who would you least like to fight at Bath?
Grewi. I fought Grewie before and he battered me, he’s a black belt in karate and I ended up worse off.
So he threw a few karate moves?
No it was all straight boxing with no head shots. It was good fun to box someone so well known, he’s a bit old but he’s quick thinking. His body might not move as quickly as before but he certainly bruised me when he hit me. We haven’t done boxing for a while though.
Shame…
We did do judo yesterday thought and I managed to split my lip open – I flipped one guy and landed on his hip…
Goals for the season?
We haven’t set them out yet but I guess we’d want to take the title and I think cause a few shocks in the Heineken Cup.
And yourself?
I just want to be consistent, do what I did last year and maybe get my hands on the ball a bit more…
Good stuff, thanks Matt
All Matt Banahan pictures courtesy of Patrick Khachfe – www.pkimages.co.uk