A loosehead in the last year of his deal
Bath have a contract problem with a name and a deadline attached to it. Beno Obano is out of his deal at the end of the season, and Bordeaux-Begles have already held talks with him. RugbyPass reported the approach earlier today.
The French club are not a speculative suitor. They are the reigning Investec Champions Cup holders, and a loosehead of Obano’s standing fits the profile of a squad built to defend that title.
Obano is 31. He debuted for Bath in 2015 and has made 189 appearances for the club, a run that stretches through the whole of the club’s rebuild and takes in the historic treble of the 2024-25 season.
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The front row Bath keep rebuilding
Johann van Graan has already watched that unit thin out. Springbok tighthead Thomas du Toit left for the Sharks at the end of last season, and Francois van Wyk joined Connacht in the same window. Obano leaving would mean three experienced props gone inside two transfer windows.
Bath open the new PREM campaign already short elsewhere, with scrum-half Ben Spencer sidelined after shoulder surgery. A front row rebuilt twice in twelve months is not the platform van Graan planned to start from.
The England cost
A move across the Channel carries a second bill. Signing in the Top 14 would bring an instant end to Obano’s Test career, and he has only just rebuilt it. His most recent cap came in July, in the Nations Championship defeat to the Springboks, and it was his first since 2024.
That is the calculation now sitting in front of him. A contract at the European champions on one side, an England shirt he spent two years getting back on the other. He has until the end of the season to decide. Bordeaux will want an answer well before that.
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