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Blood's thicker than water as Bath prop Beno Obano tells cousin Maro Itoje about his many career setbacks
Bath prop Beno Obano has opened up on the Maro Itoje Pearl Conversations podcast about the spiral of events and injuries he has encountered in order to reach the stage he is at now in his career. The two players, who are actually cousins, discussed everything from their rugby careers to their childhood holidays. They also shared their experiences in the professional rugby environment being British-Nigerian.
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Obano explained how he keeps to himself in what is a different culture to what he is used to, having come “from a Nigerian household where if it’s any sport at all it’s football, if it’s not football then it’s books”. The Bath prop also spoke at length about the obstacles he has had to overcome throughout his career in terms of injuries and the path that has led him to the cusp of the England squad.
The first major setback the 25-year-old suffered was while he was still at school in London and part of the Wasps academy. He said on the podcast: “I was playing for my 1st XV at the time. I was 16, so I was still in year eleven playing for the 1st XV and in the last minute of the game I went for a jackal and the ground just went underneath me.
“I’ve done the splits and torn my hamstring. Obviously, at the time you don’t know anything about injuries, I was just thinking, ‘I’ve pulled it’, I just thought it was okay and I’ll be back in a week or two.”
The loosehead had Wasps training on the afternoon of the injury and he recalls that his hamstring reacted in such a way that it “has never been the same since. ‘Til this day, ’til this running session I did this morning, it’s never been the same since”.
Blood is thicker than water ?? This week I'm joined by my cousin, @EnglandRugby and @bathrugby Prop @ObanoB, for the 5th episode of #PearlConversations. Click here to listen in full https://t.co/jgbfnWVx3A ? pic.twitter.com/2RE5Sht9Dm
— Maro Itoje (@maroitoje) July 28, 2020
This injury ultimately meant the prop was fast-tracked to the England U16s camp without going through the regional stages, yet he “couldn’t run at all” and was subsequently sent home due to a lack of fitness. Despite missing out on the under-16s, he later made the England U18s squad only to play at hooker, which both he and Itoje regaled was hampered by his throwing.
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The next setback was after signing a contract with Wasps where he had a scan on a back injury that had been bothering him. This revealed his back was fractured, which meant he missed “the majority of the season”. He said: “I was learning how to run again properly. This was all happening at 19 and I don’t think people understand – when you’re 18, 19 you can’t fully comprehend injuries and what it takes to return from them.”
After leaving Wasps, Obano was offered an opportunity to play an A league game. “I trained for Bath for a week and then went and played in that game and lasted 18 minutes. They dragged me off after 18 minutes. I hadn’t played rugby in a year and I must have been about 126kgs.”
Nonetheless, Mike Ford gave Obano the opportunity to take part in the pre-season at Bath, which he said was “the hardest I’ve ever done in my life”. He was offered a contract after that and spent the season on loan at Coventry. It was during Todd Blackadder’s second season in charge at The Rec in 2017/18 where the imposing prop finally announced himself, emerging on the radar of England head coach Eddie Jones.
However, this progress was yet again curtailed by a devastating knee injury in May 2018 while with England where he “tore every ligament” in his knee. While that was his most recognised setback to date, Obano also described how he had suffered a knee subluxation earlier that year with Bath which meant he did not take part in the England training camp ahead of the Six Nations.
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These experiences throughout his career have given him a cautious approach to rehabbing and dealing with injuries, leading him to trust what and who he knows. He said: “Because of my hamstring I don’t trust physios that much, so I don’t trust what they say. But I have a good friend of mine called Keir Wenham-Flatt. He works in college football now in America and if I had an issue I would always call him. That was important.
“So the physios would suggest something and I’d call people to make sure what I’m doing is correct. Then all you have to do is make a good plan and just stick at it, be consistent with it and that’s basically what I did. I just trusted the people that I knew and the physios that I knew that I trusted, not just the club physios, and basically created a plan with them and then followed that. I remember I’d get in so many arguments with my physio because they would tell me to do stuff I’d refuse to do. But it worked and I got back in nine months.”
His knee injury quashed any hopes of competing for a World Cup 2019 place, but Obano has been ever-present for Bath since his return. An injury to Mako Vunipola during this year’s Six Nations saw him called into the England training camp once again, but he remained behind Joe Marler and Ellis Genge in the pecking order and is still waiting for his first cap.
He added that it “weighs on [him] quite a bit” that he has not yet played for England, particularly as his cousin plays so often, and he outlined his determination to be selected by Jones in the future.
Heck of a lot of ability in this XV https://t.co/LkligKBuLd
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) July 8, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
I always enjoy a good scrum based article. Thanks, Nick. The Hurricanes are looking more and more the team to beat down here in Australasia. They are a very well balanced team. And though there are far fewer scrums in the game these days, destructive power in that area is a serious weapon, especially an attacking scrum within in the red zone. Aumua looked very good as a young first year player, but then seemed to fade. He sure is back now right in the picture for the AB’s. And I would judge that Taukei’aho is in a bit of a slump currently. Watching him at Suncorp a few weeks ago, I thought he was not as dominant in the game as I would have expected. I am going to raise an issue in that scrum at around the 13 min mark. I see a high level of danger there for the TH lifted off the ground. He is trapped between the opposition LH and his own powerful SR. His neck is being put under potentially dangerous pressure. The LH has, in law , no right to use his superior scrummaging skill….getting his head right in on the breastbone of the TH…..to force him up and off the ground. Had the TH popped out of the scrum, head up and free, there is no danger, that is a clear penalty to the dominant scrum. The law is quite clear on this issue: Law 37 Dangerous play and restricted practices in a scrum. C:Intentionally lifting an opponent off their feet or forcing them upwards out of the scrum. Sanction: Penalty. Few ,if any, referees seem to be aware of this law, and/or the dangers of the situation. Matthew Carly, refereeing Clermont v Munster in 2021, penalised the Munster scrum, when LH Wycherly was lifted very high, and in my view very dangerously, by TH Slimani. Lifting was coached in the late ‘60’s/70’s. Both Lions props, Ray McLouglin, and “Mighty Mouse” McLauchlan, were expert and highly successful at this technique. I have seen a photo, which I can’t find online atm, of MM with a NZ TH(not an AB) on his head, MM standing upright as the scrum disintegrates.
3 Go to commentsHey. Stay home and play for Mooloo.
1 Go to commentsTighthead was always going to be our weakness this year with Ryan going home to Ireland and the Cashed Up Blues taking a third All Black prop from us - nobody else in SR does that. Numia is the exciting one. He used to be a lightweight but he's really improved. Do you have stats on the All Black hookers’ lineouts for the game? I seem to remember a few misses.
3 Go to commentsFergus Burke isn't tier 1 player quality…but guess what, he'll be playing amongst them for Saracens…. all going well and Steve Borthwick is still the head coach, England...Scott Robertson’s hint of amending NZRU’s offshore AB eligibility clause, would mean that players like Josh Moorby who show potential might get a call…
4 Go to commentsThe movement of quality players back to SA is remarkable.
2 Go to commentsInteresting article, Nic. Am enjoying seeing the Rebels doing well, partly just to spite those who are working to wipe them off the face of the Australian rugby planet. But it is also good to see a team with somany good players beginning fire. LSL has benefitted so much from his move up to Northampton for the one year. I wonder why he did not stay on for another year. Does he now looks north and see his teammates of last year now doing so well, and have some regrets.
44 Go to comments“Over 80% of the World Cup squad are over 30” No it isn’t lol
2 Go to commentsTyrel Lomax the best AB prop since Carl Hayman. Absolutely destroyed the Boks in RWC Final and is monstering allcomers in Super this season. Should be a monster battle vs touring Poms, always deliver a power pack.
3 Go to commentsEye gouging seems like such a strong term for what can only be described as a poke in the eye. When I think of eye gouging I think of someone trying to intentionally pop someone’s eyeball out. it’s like calling a high-tackle attempted decapitation.
3 Go to commentsGreat article. No insights to add, just wanted to say that. :)
1 Go to commentsLeinster are going to win the world cup.
13 Go to commentsSuper Rugby desperately needs to lose at least 2, but up to 4 teams. Rebels quietly going bankrupt would have made that a bit easier. Teams like the Rebels and Force serve only to weaken Australian Rugby and Super Rugby more widely. In 13 years in the comp the Rebels are yet to win more games than they lose in a season, have never finished in the top half of the competition, and have come dead last a number of times. The Western Force, barring a brief stint of mediocrity under John Mitchell from 2007-2009 have been even worse. Sadly it’s hard to see a future for Moana Pasifika in Super Rugby. Likewise I think the writing is on the wall for the Highlanders, it’s hard to see how NZ rugby can continue to support 5 SR teams, and population distribution suggests one team in the south island would make the most sense.
44 Go to commentsNice that Connor Evans is happy to stay on here, that JD Schikerling is returning and Steven Kitshoff. Dobbo is careful to bring back just anybody but having a new financial lease of life, it has made the Stormers a more attractive club. On top of being good quality, having the financial backing helps a lot
1 Go to commentsEngland-qualified too, I believe.
1 Go to commentsThis might turn out to be emblematic of a real issue in Irish rugby. Ireland have one of the best -if not the best - senior sides in the world, and one of the best under 20s sides as well, but don’t seem to be giving graduating under20s players many opportunities to break through into URC starting lineups. There is a risk that a lot of the junior talent they are developing will either be wasted, or lost to other nations.
1 Go to commentsYou ask good questions, Nick. The group who have put together the proposal to play out of Tarneit and participate in the growing of the ground’s capacity are not a bunch of white knights who have been dragged in post-crisis; they were around whilst the Rebels accummulated $23m in debt. Why do we come up with ideas that might make the franchise affordable after it’s broke and not when it might have prevented the trainwreck this offseason was? As for Gordon/Kellaway v Lolesio/Wright, they are both good options. I think the former are better rugby players but the goal kicking of Noah may be decisive when Schmiddy makes his choices. I know Harry Jones has the hots for Edmed but I think it’s one of his few poor choices and he and Jorgensen aren’t close to the other pairs. By coincidence, the wife and I went into town over the weekend to watch Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson in Long Day’s Journey into Night. Beautifully acted but it was 3.5 hours in the chair and very hard work. Like the Rebels, there were only small bursts of joy to go with a lot of bad news and a depressing story line. In the end, I was hoping it would end and I could give my sore butt a break. Again, familiar.
44 Go to commentsGood decision, very good player but not international quality. But so was Jamison Gibson Park …..
4 Go to commentsLoose forwards always look good going forward and winning. It’s the same loose forwards for the Crusaders and the Canes this year as last year. Too much of the shiny new things getting noticed here while older consistent ones getting bagged. It’s early days. Calm the farm.
8 Go to commentsThanks Nick, and on the money. We tend to be apathetic until something REALLY BAD happens, then we aren't! At least this applies to the Reb players and coach, if not the spectators. They seem to be getting very quick ball at times. Have they altered something, or is it just all of the skills coming together at the right time? It seems almost the opposite of the Reds, who started the season with quick ball, but haven't been showing that in the last 3 losing games. Is it attitude (McDermott hasn't looked “right” to me for 3 weeks), or something else?
44 Go to commentsGood summary. As said, Sevu Reece has been electrifying for the Crusaders. Great try and he has been everywhere. Amazing he is now equal with Caleb Ralph , club record of 52 tries for the Crusaders. That record beckons. Good to see Dallas McLeod getting regular starts at last. A big few weeks are ahead.
8 Go to comments