One Kiwi rugby player will be going down in his club's history books after crawling off the field with a broken leg, so the championship game can continue.
With 17 minutes left in the Ngāti Porou East Coast championship game in Whangaparāoa, Anton King went down with the rough injury. Obviously, the game stopped as everyone waited for the ambulance to arrive.
After thirty minutes of stoppage, cancelling the game was discussed. With a close score, King did not want to jeopardise his team’s chance at winning. So, with someone lifting his injured leg, the weapon dragged himself off the field, allowing play to continue.
King’s Hicks Bay team were losing 7 - 6 at the time of the injury and subsequent stoppage. After play resumed though, Hicks Bay would go on to score the winning try and take home their first-ever club championship.
One can only assume the fellas shouted King plenty of beers for his sacrifice.
Footage was posted to the Facebook page ‘The Legend of Marty Banks’, where commenters discussed just how legendary the moment was.
“We watched my home team win from Aussie,” wrote one person. “I’m not ashamed to say I teared up watching the nephew drag himself off for his bros - hearty legend! Meke game, all players were winners on that field.”
“That’s right up there with Buck Shelford playing on with one of his 'veg' ripped out and hanging free,” said another.
“Legend status for this hearty bloke,” a third added.
“What a legend,” one more said. “His team thanked him the best way they could.”
All those comments are absolutely bang on the money. It takes one tough mother-effer to crawl ten-plus metres with a broken leg. It’s a bit of sporting beauty that his team went on to lift the trophy at the end of the day, a true trooper.
