Gareth Bale was encouraged to embrace Spanish culture to become a hit in Madrid, but it appears the world's most expensive player has also introduced some home comforts, bringing some Welsh rugby to the Santiago Bernabéu.
Ahead of his debut appearance in this Saturday’s Clásico with Barcelona, Bale and his Real Madrid teammates Luka Modrić, Karim Benzema and Jesé Rodríguez demonstrated their skills with a variety of different balls.
After displaying phenomenal ball control with a football, squash ball and even a giant exercise ball, the Real stars took on the Rugby Union egg and Bale produced a performance that has to be seen to be believed in an impromptu crossbar challenge which left his new team mates visibly astonished.
Bale aims for the spectacular
The Welshman was joined by former Tottenham teammate Luka Modrić
Following instruction from Modrić, Bale nails a crunching Rugby ball volley to knock a drinks bottle off the frame of the goal and then follows it up with a long-distance drop-goal that would have made Jonny Wilkinson blush. See the amazing video here.
Bale said: “You can see the skill of the players, everything is unbelievable, the standard is so high.”