Banahan: England will reach the semis
On the weekend that he started his own international coaching career, Matt Banahan is backing England to reach the World Cup semi-finals.
Banahan is currently in Cape Town for WXV, as part of the Scotland coaching team looking to win the second division of World Rugby's new global women's competition.
But on Sunday he will be glued to his screen like everyone else to see if England's men can shake off Fiji and do what he failed to do as a World Cup player in 2011 and make it through to the last four.
“I think they're at a point where they will win because they have got a little bit of momentum, and I think Fiji are just getting a little bit tired,” said Banahan, scorer of 100 tries for Bath.
“They did look a bit leggy against Portugal but, at the same time, you never know what they are going to put out there and they are more used to playing against northern hemisphere teams, and a lot of them do play in the northern hemisphere in France or in England, so they could, in theory, put in a strong game against England as they did at Twickenham in the warm-up games.
“They (Fiji) have done tremendous throughout the whole tournament and they have got some great players.
“But I just think England will have just too much power and depth for them. The depth of squad is what you need when you get to this part because most teams have a lot of knocks and bumps and bruises, and I just think that England have greater depth of player to go into a high-pressure situation.”
Apart from Henry Arundell's five tries against Chile, it has been slim pickings for England's wingers at the World Cup, and Banahan, below, would like to see them get more touches.
“I think there is a greater reason why they don't get touches but that is their game plan, of pressure a ndkicking the ball d ownthe channel which means as a winger you are chasing the ball a lot of the time,” said the 36-year-old.
“They know that they haven't been performing or playing very well but, at the end of the day, international rugby is about winning by one point rather than 50, it is about winning back-toback games and trying to get to the final.
“Everything goes back to your stats and if you play 40 games and you win 40, even if they're ugly, it doesn't matter. I definitely think they'll go for that type of performance.
“I think they will get through this one, I think the next challenge will be in the next game after that, which will be an interesting one.”
Banahan's 16th and final England cap came in the 2011 World Cup quarter-final defeat to France in Auckland but he now finds himself back in the Test arena, as backs and attack coach of Scotland Women.
“It is what I used to do at Gloucester academy, Louis Rees-Zammit, Charlie Chapman and Tom Seabrook and all those boys who have kicked on, and now I have an opportunity to do that with the players here,” he said.
“Women's rugby is definitely on the up and I believe if we want it to grow more we have to fill it with elite coaches who have either played the game at the elite level or understand the game at the elite level, and that it what Scotland are looking to do under Bryan Easson.
“You have got Bryan and Martin Haag who have coached for multiple years and then you've got myself and Tyrone Holmes who have not long come from our playing days. I believe I can do a very good job for them.
“I always wanted to coach, retiring from rugby in Covid probably didn't help that with people staying at clubs longer because of what happened.
“There were no opportunities in the professional game development so I had to keep working at Kingswood (School in Bath), keep biding my time, and then this came up. I am enjoying it and looking forward to developing not only myself and the team of players that we have.”
