Glasgow lock Jare Oguntibeju explains the 'dead leg' behind his viral slow-motion try

Jare Oguntibeju has offered a straightforward explanation for the slow-motion try that made him an unlikely talking point after Glasgow Warriors’ United Rugby Championship quarter-final win over Connacht at Scotstoun last Friday: he had a dead leg. The 6ft 8in, 123kg lock picked up the ball at an unguarded ruck 25 metres out, threaded a gap between replacement front-rowers Dave Heffernan and Peter Dooley, and flopped over the line despite a brief stumble a metre short — all while appearing, to the naked eye, to be running through treacle.

“What most people didn’t understand was that at that moment I had a bit of a dead leg so I couldn’t really pick up my knees,” Oguntibeju said. “But everyone else thinks I just run weird so I will just go with that story for now; it’s easier.”

The try drew immediate and widespread reaction. Commentator Rory Hamilton’s breathless call — “Is there any stopping him? There’s no stopping him!” — was accompanied on social media by descriptions of Oguntibeju’s gait as “quirky”, like “a young gazelle” and a “baby giraffe”. One observer called it “the slowest line break in history”; another quipped that he had reached the line “with the handbrake still on”. The comparisons to the late Doddie Weir’s famous ‘runaway giraffe’ impression were inevitable.

Oguntibeju has taken the attention in good humour. Immediately after the game he told pitchside reporter Ryan Wilson that he looks fast without the ball but that once it is in his hands “it’s a bit of a limiting factor”. The self-deprecation, however, masks a growing confidence and rugby intelligence that Warriors head coach Franco Smith has been working to develop.

The try arrived at a critical moment. With Glasgow leading 21-14 and 13 minutes remaining, Connacht were refusing to yield. Oguntibeju’s score gave the hosts vital breathing space, though Kyle Steyn’s second try was ultimately needed to seal the quarter-final.

“Franco talks a lot about just being brave in that moment,” Oguntibeju said. “I looked up and just saw the space. It is like you don’t really think about it, you just do it and then you realise what you have done afterwards. It is almost instinctual. You back yourself and then you just keep going really.”

What makes the moment more remarkable is how recently Oguntibeju came to rugby at all. A self-described football and basketball enthusiast for most of his childhood, he only took up the game at the age of 17 — making his emergence as a genuine presence in Glasgow’s forward pack all the more striking.