More competition the better for Catt
Of all the end-of-season narratives surrounding Bath Rugby, one of the most interesting might revolve around a single jersey. Finally, Nathan Catt and Beno Obano are both fit and ready to battle it out for that number-one shirt for the final Premiership push. In 2016/17, Catt was the clear first choice loosehead and the relatively raw Obano was an academy prospect who featured off the bench every now and then. Last season, with Catt missing most of the campaign due to injury, Obano got his shot and came of age; even ending up as a member of the England training squad. A horrific knee injury on a camp down in Brighton last May put him out for nine months, but now the 24-year-old is back to give experienced Catt - the re-established starter - a run for his money. The coaches also have Jacques van Rooyen and Lucas Noguera at their disposal. Catt and Obano are good friends and work together on getting better in training, but a healthy rivalry between them is a fascinating front-row sub plot. “The more competition, the better for the players and the club,” Catt told the Bath Chronicle. “That gives us some pretty good strength in depth. It’s going to be pretty competitive and it just means the team is going to be better. “Boys will be striving to improve. The better someone else is training or playing, you want to emulate that. You help each other at the same time. You critique each other. “Me and Beno will have a good go at it. It will be fun. To be fair, I think we’ve got four very good looseheads with younger guys (such as the academy’s Will Vaughan) coming through behind. “It’s brilliant for the club having the options to rotate. At the same time, everyone wants to be playing. Everyone will be doing everything they can to be the person playing.” Next up for Bath are the Premiership champions, Saracens, at the Rec on Friday night. The visitors will be without their England internationals - Bath will be without Joe Cokanasiga and Charlie Ewels - but even in their absence Sarries still dominated Northampton Saints at Allianz Park last weekend. Down in seventh, Bath need a win to leapfrog some mid-table teams and chase Gloucester in the fourth play-off place. Now Matt Banahan has left, Catt is Bath’s longest serving player. He was in the academy when the club won the European Challenge Cup in 2008, although he didn’t play in the final. The 31-year-old missed the 2015 Premiership final due to injury. All of which means he’s itching for a trophy; having signed a three-year contract extension to take him up to 2022. “I want to win something,” he said. “I’ve been here my whole career. I’ll probably finish my career here as well. I want to have a trophy to show for that at the end.”