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Against all odds, Bath set for 19 stone piece of welcome injury news
By Alex Shaw
Injuries have been taking Bath on a rollercoaster ride of late, with the good news of Taulupe Faletau’s recent return replaced by the frustration of seeing the Welsh international break his arm against Wasps on Saturday.
Faletau has been ruled out of the Six Nations as a result, but Bath are about to be buoyed by the return to fitness of one player they had not expected to see this season.
Beno Obano was set to miss most, if not all of the 2018/19 season with the damage to multiple knee ligaments that he suffered at the end of last season, whilst being part of an England training camp.
The loosehead’s rehabilitation has gone well, however, with the prop back in training now and RugbyPass understand that he is aiming for a February comeback. The home tie against Newcastle Falcons on February 16th, when the Gallagher Premiership resume after European and Premiership Cup breaks, is a possible date for his return, although a trip to Northampton Saints a week later or the home tie with Harlequins at the beginning of March could be more conservative targets.
Obano, 24, had been having an impressive 2017/18 season at club level with Bath, forcing his way into both the Six Nations and summer tour training camps with England, but any hopes he had of making his debut on the South Africa tour were dashed when he was forced to prematurely leave the Brighton training camp with "multiple ligament and hamstring tendon damage".
In Obano’s absence, Bath have leant heavily on Nathan Catt, who is currently sidelined with a shoulder injury, Jacques van Rooyen and Lucas Noguera Paz, whilst Exeter Chiefs loosehead Ben Moon has forced his way into contention with England.
Bath are set to welcome back England centre Jonathan Joseph this weekend against Toulouse, after the back was one of the club’s non-playing reserves against Wasps last Saturday, with Joe Cokanasiga still a few weeks away from action and Anthony Watson not expected to be seen anytime soon.
It was Obano’s injury at the end of last season that sparked the infamous war of words between Bath owner Bruce Craig, who criticised the training methods and intensity of England camps, and Eddie Jones, who responded by labelling Craig the "Donald Trump of rugby".
Watch: Eddie Jones discusses his 35-man squad for the upcoming Six Nations.
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Latest Comments
I don't listen to Nigel Farage. Really not sure where you'd be getting that from. Maybe you should stick to responding to what I've actually said, rather than speculating about my sources.
I'm not sure what you think Putin is going to do. He'll probably conquer Ukraine, but its taken him a long time, and cost him a lot of soldiers. Hitler overran France in a matter of weeks and then started bombing Britain. At this rate Putin might make it to Paris by 2080? I think he'll give up long before then!
I don't see what Stalinist language policy has to do with any of what we're talking about. De-Ukrainization took place in the 1930s, but the genocide of Palestine is taking place in 2025. If your argument is that the invasion of Ukraine is part of a longer history of Russian suppression of Ukraine then you might have a point, but that really just underlines the key difference between Hitler and Putin; Hitler wanted to dominate as much area as possible and so posed a threat to all of Europe, whereas Putin wants to force the assimilation of those who have historically been within the Russian sphere of influence, so only poses a threat to eastern europe and central asia.
"Read and think for yourself."
What would you recommend I read? On the genocide of Palestine I've found Patrick Wolfe's "Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native" and Sai Englert's "Settlers, Workers, and the Logic of Accumulation by Dispossession" especially useful - they might disabuse you of the notion that what we are witnessing is an "authoritarian criminal syndicate" fighting a nation! - rather Zionist genocide is a largely democratic process, arising from a structure of settler colonialism which has no analogue in Ukraine.
Go to commentsAnd they're really playing good rugby,beating every team because they can squat with heavy weights. Not
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