AK-47s, marijuana fields and the mafia: Marty Banks opens up on his 'crazy' Russian rugby experience
Before Marty Banks earned cult hero status in New Zealand for his exploits with Tasman and the Highlanders, the seasoned playmaker began his professional rugby career in the unlikeliest of destinations – Russia.
Much has been made of Banks and his colourful journeyman-like career that has seen him play across New Zealand, as well as in Italy and Japan, where he is currently based with the NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes.
Prior to all of that, though, the 31-year-old was forced to look abroad for playing opportunities with vacancies in New Zealand’s professional ranks far and few between.
That led to an opening in 2011 with Krasny Yar, one of Russia’s premier rugby clubs based out of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk.
Then aged 21, Banks received the opportunity through current All Blacks assistant coach Brad Mooar, who at the time was working for the Canterbury Rugby Union.
Banks had initially planned to move to Christchurch to join Canterbury’s academy system after an unsuccessful attempt to crack the North Harbour provincial side, but instead signed a short-term deal with Krasny Yar.
What transpired was a five-month experience that he described on the What a Lad podcast, hosted by former Hurricanes utility back James Marshall, as “crazy”, “ridiculous” and “eye-opening”.
“Russia was just a whole different ball game,” Banks said as he recalled a story of how he shot AK-47s around fields of cannabis.
“We went to this area, it was owned by the CEO or something like that, and it was sort of just like this big, open piece of land that had a few houses on it, and it turned out that it was just the bosses of the city, like the head of police and stuff like that.
“It was sort of like a holiday destination where they could go and just get locked into their own gates, so you and I can’t just walk on in there unless we’ve been invited.
“I remember going in there and there were just AK-47s that we could shoot into the water, marijuana growing like wildfire. It was ridiculous.
“There were literally no rules. I guess the only rule was don’t do anything stupid to harm anyone else. It was just eye-opening.
“There were people out shooting bears and bringing them back with their skins and stuff like this. It was just ridiculous.”
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The madness wasn’t limited to guns, weed and bears, as Banks discovered when he found out his club had ties to Russian organised crime.
“There were always links to the mafia, like we’d been told by other people outside of the club that the club had ties to the mafia and all this sort of stuff,” he said.
Banks’ suspicions about Krasny Yar’s links to the Russian mafia grew stronger when he was told some of their members watched the club’s matches from a room with tinted windows at the team’s home ground.
“We had a grandstand on the left-hand side of the field and on the right-hand side was the office block, but there was a blacked out, literally tinted out, room above the office block,” Banks told the What a Lad podcast.
“The only way you could get in there was, like there were no steps to it outside, it was just a tunnel, like you go in it via a tunnel.
“You could just see, obviously with tinted windows you can still see through them but you don’t know really what’s behind them, but you can see people in there, and we were told that this is where some of the mafia were sitting, and it was just like, ‘Holy hecker’.
“Whether they were there or not, I don’t know, this is just stuff that we got fed, but when you get handed a bag of cash at the end of your contract, you start to wonder.
“They told me it was because I didn’t have my bank account setup properly, but I know the team now, they’re in the second division European comp [European Challenge Cup] I think, so obviously a lot of that has to be ironed out, the money side of it.”
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Those links to the Russian underworld became a source of concern for Banks upon his return to New Zealand after he spoke of his time in Siberia during a television interview.
“The thing was, when I did the interview, it got posted in Russia, and I got a message from this rugby page in Russia saying, ‘We remember you Marty Banks’ with a wink, and then I woke up and clicked on the page, but the post had been removed,” he told Marshall.
“Obviously someone had told them to take it down, so I was getting a little bit sketchy about it.”
Nevertheless, Banks looked back on his Russian experience fondly, adding that while he ruled out going back to the country in a playing capacity, he would be eager to return for a holiday.
“It was a great place. You think about Russia and you’re like, ‘Why the hell would I go there’, but… if I was in a better position rugby-wise, I definitely wouldn’t have gone, but having the opportunity to go somewhere like that, it shaped you as a person.”
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments