Bath in battle to keep hold of England prop Beno Obano

Bath are facing a battle to keep England loose-head Beno Obano at The Rec when his contract runs out at the end of the season, after he held talks with back-to-back Champions Cup winners Bordeaux-Bègles.

Obano, 31, who is Maro Itoje’s cousin, entered the final year of his contract at the start of July, and his name has been circulating among clubs in France over the last couple of months.

If he opts for a move to France next season, it will be a massive blow to Bath, who lost their first-choice tight-head, Thomas Du Toit, who rejoined his former club, the Durban-based Sharks, earlier this summer.

François Van Wyk, who was Obano’s understudy, will be playing in the United Rugby Championship next season after moving to Connacht when his contract ran out at the end of June.

Obano, who is approaching 200 appearances for Bath since he made his debut in a defeat at Exeter Chiefs in February 2015, started Bath’s Challenge Cup and Gallagher PREM final victories in 2025.

In the summer, he won his first England cap since playing against Italy in February 2024, coming off the bench in the 45-21 Nations Championship match against South Africa at Ellis Park.

Bordeaux have Jefferson Poirot and Matis Perchaud out of contract in July 2027 and have been assessing who is available for a move, holding face-to-face talks with Obano in south-west France last week.

Moving across the Channel would end his England career, but he wasn’t one of the 25 players announced at the start of the month as having been awarded an enhanced Elite Player Squad (EPS) contract for the 2026-2027 campaign.

He impressed Bordeaux in their Champions Cup semi-final win over Bath last season and is set to give an answer to Les Girondins bosses in the next couple of weeks, which would allow them to move on to other targets if he decides to stay put.