Matt Banahan announces retirement from rugby

Gloucester winger Matt Banahan has announced that he will retire at the end of the current season.

The popular 33-year-old took to social media to inform his fans that: “My journey is coming to a end, this will be my last season. I will enjoy what the next so many months have got for me.”

My journey is coming to a end, this will be my last season. I will enjoy what the next so many months have got for me #whatsnextwholnows pic.twitter.com/safHzluDWr

— matt banahan (@mattbanahan1) November 29, 2020

Speaking to RugbyPass earlier this year, Banahan said that he was struggling to compete with the club’s current bevy of super-fast backs. He told Chris Jones: “The way I put it is this; an F1 car from the 1960s is still the fastest car that was around then. I am classing myself as a 1980’s F1 car and these are 2020 F1 cars and they are much faster than I have ever been.

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“It is great to see these players develop around me and the opportunities they have given themselves. My game has changed over the years and my brakes are working just as fast but the natural gift they have is amazing and it is great to be part of it.”

Prior to signing for Gloucester in 2018, Banahan had racked up over 250 appearances for Bath. His form in the Blue, Black and White has seen him pick up 16 caps for England, featuring in the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

Standing at 6’7” and weighing over 110kg, Banahan combined pace, power and size, with quality skills in the air, and an eye for the try line, causing havoc for defences in a quality Bath backline in recent seasons, and will now finish his career at Kingsholm.

Having joined Bath in 2006 as a forward, Jersey-born Banahan was moved to the wing by former coach Brian Ashton. Named in the wider England Sevens squad in 2007, Banahan then represented England Saxons three times in 2008, before making his senior debut in 2009 against Argentina.