Bath secured a place in this weekend’s grand final at Twickenham courtesy of a 47-10 triumph and once again benefitted from an attacking style that has brought an astounding 79 tries this season.
Age: 28
Position: Wing/centre
Height: 6′ 7″
Weight: 17st 5lb
Previous clubs: Jersey RFC, London Irish Academy
Record try scorer for Bath in the Aviva Premiership – 44.
Jerseyman Banahan etched his name into the record books with a trio of touchdowns in front of a home crowd, and he insists that his side will not be diverted from their direct approach as they prepare to take on Saracens in a finale that could provide the West Country outfit with their first Premiership crown in almost 20 years.
‘Saracens are a great defensive side with some great attacking backs as well, but we can’t think we are playing a team of gods,’ Banahan said.
‘It’s a team of 15 blokes in front of us, and we are going to play exactly how we have done in the last 23 rounds of the Premiership. We don’t want to go away from it.
‘We went out to play exactly as we have done all year, and it came off. You can win these one-off games by a point, or how we did it and you get a sense of achievement.’
Banahan’s man of the match performance came just days after he was omitted from England’s 50-man training squad for this year’s World Cup. The 28-year-old has not played for his country since the ill-fated 2011 campaign in New Zealand, but Bath head coach Mike Ford has said the Islander – and fellow World Cup hopeful Semesa Rokoduguni – must remain prepared.
Bath will be making their first appearance in a Premiership final since their 10-6 defeat to London Wasps in 2004. They have not won the Premiership title since the 1995/96 season.
‘There were two games on Saturday, another game next Saturday, an England-Barbarians game too, and then a long World Cup camp. People get injured, and they just need to be ready.’
And there would be no better place than Twickenham for Banahan to state his case, with Bath looking for their first league title since 1995/96.
‘We have given ourselves an opportunity to do something next week that we haven’t done for a long time,’ Banahan added.
‘It’s a very short career in which to play with a special group of guys and make memories, and now we have the chance to make the city of Bath very happy.’
