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Beno Obano put in a hot spot as he's grilled by passionate Bath fans
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Bath’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final against defending champions Bordeaux has been the talk of the city ever since the fixture was confirmed three weeks ago.
Around 3,000 Bath supporters are reckoned to making the trip to Bordeaux for this Sunday’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final against defending champions UBB, while thousands more will be packing out the pubs and clubs back home to watch the action from Stade Atlantique Bordeaux Métropole.
Bath’s first Champions Cup semi-final in 20 years has captured the imagination of those who remember the time when Bath became the first English winners in Europe in 1998, with cries of ‘Allez, Allez’ ringing out around the Stade du Parc Lescure, and the younger generation, who are being rewarded for staying loyal to the blue, black and white through the lean times with another big day out.
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Cup semi-final fervour has not been lost on popular loose-head prop, Beno Obano, who spoke well to the assembled media at Farleigh House on Wednesday.
Twelve years deep into his Bath career, Obano is still pleasantly surprised at how invested the locals are with their rugby team, even if it means a spa-time grilling.
“I go to the spa regularly in Bath,” Obano says, “and usually they harass me and talk to me about Bath rugby and don’t let me sit quietly. This week they’ve been on to me — this group of older men — and it was so funny, one of them was watching the Bordeaux-Toulouse quarter-final, and booked tickets before the game ended as they were so hard to get.
“The support, how much they love the club and the city, is amazing. Driving around the city it feels like there’s a Bath sticker literally on every car.
“We’ll hopefully reprsent those guys as best we can.”
Even though they have been the dominant force in English rugby over the past two seasons, Bath are rated as 4/1 underdogs in Sunday’s final.
It’ll have been a while since they were such long odds to win a match, but the UBB side is also stacked with talent, from Matthieu Jalibert to Louis Bielle-Biarrey, and Damian Penaud to Ben Tameifuna – something Obano is well aware of.
“The team we’re coming up against has more strengths than most and they’re a great team, but we think we’re a good team,” he said defiantly.
“So, it’s just about going out there and being the best version of ourselves.”
Obano says Johann van Graan’s aura of calmness, even when things aren’t going well, helps them to do that.
“It’s credit to Johann since he came in, but in these big games, we’re just so calm.
“Everything we need is in the team, so it’s empowering to play in those games and know that whatever happens, we’ll be calm,” he stressed.
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