Marty banks on one last hurrah in final showdown
‘‘I guess we’ve just got to be patient, and we showed against Taranaki that we can be patient.’’ Marty Banks
Heartland rugby’s Lochore Cup, the national provincial championship and the Super Rugby titles are already indelibly imprinted on Marty Banks’ impressive rugby CV.
The Ranfurly Shield aside, Reefton’s most celebrated rugby export is now chasing the one big prize that’s so far eluded him – the national premiership crown – to complete an even more illustrious set.
Banks holds six Tasman pointscoring records, including 614 points over four seasons, and is the leading point-scorer in this year’s Mitre 10 Cup competition with 149. He scored a record 131 points for Buller, including 16 in their 31–28 win over South Canterbury in the 2012 Lochore Cup final and memorably slotted the matchwinning dropped goal to help the Highlanders win the 2015 Super Rugby title. He’s played rugby in Christchurch, Takapuna and Russia. But whatever happens in Saturday’s premiership final against Canterbury, it will be Banks’ last act in a Tasman Makos jersey.
Banks will be playing his 40th and final game for the province since his debut at fullback against Counties Manukau in 2013 before heading to Italian club Bennetton Treviso.
He’s not letting a broken knuckle hold him back, having nursed it through last Sunday’s 41-29 semifinal win over Taranaki, so ‘‘it’s not a major’’ for the durable 27-year-old No 10.
He’d been desperate to play against Southland as his final home game for Tasman, but it wasn’t to be. He admitted that playing Canterbury in the premiership final, even in Christchurch, wasn’t a bad alternative, with a win definitely putting the perfect seal on his time in Nelson.
‘‘It’s as close to home as it probably could be against the old foe Canterbury, so I couldn’t have scripted it much better,’’ Banks said. ‘‘I’m excited and a little bit nervous and a little bit unsure about what happens next I guess. After the game finishes and the final whistle gets blown, then that’s it, done for Tassie, so it’s a little bit of a weird feeling. Win or lose, it’ll be a pretty good way to go out.
‘‘I’d love to be part of a Tasman team that managed to win the final, it’d be a pretty awesome experience.’’
Breaking down the Canterbury defence will be critical to any hopes of a Tasman victory.
‘‘Counties are a bloody good attacking team and Canterbury kept them to one try, but I think Counties blew a couple of opportunities. But I guess that’s what Canterbury build their game on, just being really accurate in every part of their game.
‘‘If you look across their team, they’ve got some bloody good players, but in recent years I guess they don’t have the star-studded team that they’ve had. What they’ve got now is a lot of boys playing really good footy and who are prepared to play for one another.
‘‘I guess we’ve just got to be patient, and we showed against Taranaki that we can be patient. I think the forwards held the ball through 30 phases and then I flogged a try off them which they weren’t too happy about,’’ he said of his own last minute try.
Banks said that Tasman’s 45-14 early season loss to Canterbury had probably helped them.
‘‘We’ve just got to play our own game and our off-loading game has been working and I think we probably learned a lot of that from Canterbury. They taught us a lesson and without that lesson, we’d probably have been battling to be where we are.
‘‘That game probably happened at the best time for us and taught us how to play with these new rules. Our team’s suited to offloading and with big ball runners like Shannon Frizell, Pete Samu and Shane Christie – and I guess the list just keeps going on. He feels Tasman are ready now. ‘‘I’ve said to a few people throughout the week that the team that we have now, compared to the team that Canterbury played in round two, is chalk and cheese really.
‘‘There’s no similarities, the names might be the same, but our game plan, the way we’re playing the game and executing are completely different.’’
Saturday’s final whistle will be a bitter-sweet moment for Banks, whatever the outcome.