Swigs and roundabouts - lifting the ring tab on rugby cult hero Marty Banks

Marty Banks was the hero of the day for the Highlanders. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Cult heroes are off the wall. Come on down Marty Banks.

The 27-year-old who kicked the Highlanders to victory over the Lions was a non-factor going into the season, with Lima Sopoaga, Hayden Parker and Fletcher Smith forming the pivot queue.

Banks was out of mind because he was supposed to be out of sight in Italy.

Banks got the call-up after Sopoaga and Parker fell to injuries. One door is always opening another closing for Marty Banks, as it did when he replaced a battling Sopoaga during the game against the Lions in Dunedin.

Banks' name is now written in lore, but is never far away from another boarding pass.

Banks is the ultimate rugby wanderer, and should already have been in Italy this year but baffled the Treviso club by not turning up for "personal reasons".

He previously played for Russian club Krasny Yar Krasnoyarsk. (The city of Krasnoyarsk is apparently the "capital" of Russian rugby, with its own dedicated 3000-seat stadium). He credits the 2011 spell at the Russian club, away from intense performance constraints, with allowing his impressive running game to emerge.

The son of a coal miner, Banks was brought up in the West Coast town of Reefton, where he played for the senior side aged 15. His dad - while in his 50s - and three much older brothers played alongside him.

Banks was a brief Hurricane, and his rugby CV also includes Buller.

The dedicated southerner also admits to having lived in Auckland for a while, playing for Takapuna and working in a gym. The Blues might now be cringing at the thought of that.

When the ex-Christchurch Boys High first XV player and Canterbury Colt moved to Tasman, it started disastrously when he broke his wrist at his first training run with the Waimea club.

It got a lot better though - he is Tasman's record points scorer and was part of their championship winning team in 2013. Banks has been a major force in turning the Makos into a major provincial force.

But wait, there's more. A can of beer.

During last year's semifinal against Taranaki in New Plymouth, a "fan" threw a can at him after he scored a try and hurled the ball into the stands. Banks picked it up, took a quick swig, kicked the angled conversion. Even the Makos official website described him as a "dead set legend" after that.

Commentator Scotty Stevenson spoke for most describing Banks as the "undisputed cult hero of the ITM Cup" a couple of years ago. Banks himself told Stuff that he was the "class clown" at the Highlanders.

He has a sort of everyman look rather than appearing as a primed athlete, but can be as hard to nail down on the field as he is off it.

But he's a bit better than just a curio, and landed a late drop goal to steer the Highlanders to victory over the Hurricanes in the 2015 Super Rugby final.

He told the Herald in Dunedin that the Super Rugby triumph topped the win over the Lions.

"That was a childhood dream, to win that," he said.

Banks has done it again, and knocked over a conversion then hit the 74th minute winning penalty against the Lions.

The shift from the Super Rugby Gilbert ball to an Adidas one made goalkicking a little trickier.

"There was a little bit of doubt during the week - they fly a little bit different," he said.

"Normally when I kick I get a little bit of right to left shape but with the Adidas balls they fly pretty straight. So I had to aim inside the post which is a bit different for me."

And that's Marty Banks - a man who flies a little bit different.

When Banks initially signed for Treviso, Banks reckoned: "I can't wait to get started in this new adventure."

Apparently he could. The mission was aborted, for then.

But nothing stands still for Marty Banks. It's Italian venture back on - he's due to join them this year. No doubt there will be another adventure after that.