Those of a certain vintage may remember from their schooldays the exploits of Billy Dane in the pages of the Tiger and Scorcher comic.
When he put on an old pair of boots belonging to a famous former professional footballer called ‘Dead Shot’ Keen, Billy was able to do magical things on the field of play himself.
Beat half a team to score a sensational goal in an important game?
That’s how it played out in Billy’s Boots.
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We don’t know if Chile’s fly-half Rodrigo Ferndandez found his own version of such footwear at half-time during his country’s World Cup qualifying series game against the USA on Saturday. But the try he scored 12 minutes into the half second half suggested he just might have been playing for that script.
It was a mazy, crazy touchdown that some are touting as one of the greatest individual tries of all time. Certainly, there appeared little on when Fernandez collected the ball some 70 metres out on a pitch in Santiago that resembled a chocolate blancmange. The weather was cold and rainy, anything but ideal for someone wanting to run with the ball.
But run with the ball is what Fernandez did.
First, he sidestepped to his right to leave one would-be defender running past him. Then, the 26-year-old sliced through a corridor in which lurked two more opponents. One more US player vainly tried to ankle tap him as he swept past halfway.
Veering right, he suddenly switched left, leaving another American sliding past him in a heap before Fernandez applied the finishing touches, stepping past the openside flanker and evading him again as he held off a final, last-ditch challenge to score.
It was a try for the ages, deservedly earning the scorer plaudits.
“Dan Carter played 112 games for New Zealand and he never scored a try as good as the one Rodrigo Fernandez just scored for Chile,” enthused @SquidgeRugby on Twitter.
@TIMLEWIS1985 suggested “it was an artistic impression of the chaos theory adequately demonstrated on the rugby field”.
The US went on to win the match 22-21, with another talking point being a power-failure which saw the lights go out in mid-game, with the players having to find their way to the changing rooms and then return to finish proceedings.
The second leg is played in Colorado next Saturday.
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