
After originally catching Saracens’ attention and reaching a century of appearances for the team in December, the Wales international signed a one-year extension to his contract last April.
Despite the Dragons’ terrible season, the 25-year-old Talywain native has been OK, leading the charge with the ball in hand and scoring six tries. However, he is about to face a new obstacle.
Following Dai Flanagan’s departure, Basham declined the opportunity to remain at Rodney Parade, where he would have been working under an unidentified new manager. According to WalesOnline, he will instead be heading to Arms Park.
Even though the 17-time capped international is now behind Tommy Reffell and Jac Morgan in the rankings, this move will keep his Test aspirations alive.
The Dragons are building their team for the upcoming campaign under the careful supervision of interim head coach Filo Tiatia and head of recruitment Jonathan Westwood, but losing native Basham is a major setback.
With Wales star Aaron Wainwright having one more year left on his contract after turning down the interest of multiple major English clubs last season, that leaves them with work to do in the back row.
Influential back rower Harri Keddie has been out since the end of October due to a groin injury, while dynamic back rower Ollie Griffiths resigned in December due to neurological damage caused by a tumor on his spine.
Solomone Funaki, a Tonga international, has had a terrible first season with the team and has yet to make his debut due to a knee injury.
After playing his first game with Pontypool in Super Rygbi Cymru and attempting to reach match fitness, the summer acquisition from Moana Pasifika suffered an arm injury while playing for Newport on Saturday.

Shane Lewis-Hughes has performed strongly after arriving from Cardiff while fellow blindside Ryan Woodman is a very exciting prospect.
However, the struggles in the back row have led to former Wales and Lions legend Dan Lydiate playing nine times in a season when he was meant to be transitioning to coaching.
The 37-year-old had to play the full 80 minutes in Sunday’s hammering by Munster after Basham went off with a cut head and failed an HIA.
The Dragons gave a debut to Evan Minto in the Challenge Cup win at Newcastle and he is in the Wales Under-20s squad along with Ryan Jones, but they are ones for the future.
A replacement with Basham’s dynamism will command a large salary and the club already have pressing needs at loosehead, tighthead, lock, fly-half and outside centre, providing another headache for the new-look coaching set-up.
The Dragons have promised a decision on who will be calling the shots next season in the coming weeks after the end of the winter block of fixtures.
Interim head coach Tiatia remains in pole position despite performances declining since the exit of Flanagan and if he does get the top job then it is likely that there would be an experienced addition to his coaching team.
The Dragons are bottom of the United Rugby Championship after losing nine straight games since the opening weekend success against the Ospreys and are in a scrap with Zebre Parma to avoid the wooden spoon.