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Paolo Odogwu has broken his silence on his uncapped Six Nations with England and how he would react if Italy called again

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by PA)

Wasps flier Paolo Odogwu has broken his silence over his recent uncapped Guinness Six Nations experience with England. The 24-year-old was in the club form of his life when he turned down a potential call-up by Italy in the hope that he might instead be included by Eddie Jones following a winter where he set the Gallagher Premiership on fire with his stellar attacking play.

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Odogwu’s instinct was proven correct as he was included by England when they named their 28-strong squad for the championship. However, instead of going on to enjoy a fairy tale international debut, the Coventry-born talent wasn’t included in any of the five match-day squads and his non-selection became a constant criticism of coach Jones on social media.

The player himself has now admitted that so much of what was alleged online was untrue. However, lack of selection by England meant Odogwu went eleven weeks without playing a match, a gap that started with Wasps’ January 8 win at Bath and ended with a run off the bench in his club’s March 27 defeat to Sale.

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If he was frustrated by this lack of exposure at a time when he came into 2021 in eye-catching form, he didn’t show it during a lengthy Wasps media appearance ahead of their match this Sunday at home to Bath. Instead, Odogwu described being involved in the England set-up for the first time as an invaluable learning experience that he is keen to put to great use now that he is back playing in the Premiership, adding that he has nothing but enthusiasm for the encouraging promptings voiced to him by coach Jones.

“Coming back in I have realised that although I am still young I have got to set a standard now,” he explained. “I have gone out of the environment, I have gone to England and I can’t come back and relax, I can’t come back and think I can chill now. I have got to keep pushing those standards, especially now that I have come back and there are like 600 new academy boys here who I have never seen before.

“This is their first time being around me and me being one of the younger players but also playing a lot (for Wasps), I feel like I have got a responsibility to show them how you hold yourself in the environment and how to work. I feel I have definitely gained a level of confidence and also a level of responsibility within the club.

“It was all really positive,” added Odogwu when asked if a parting message was delivered to him by Jones when the England squad broke up after the March 20 defeat to Ireland in Dublin confirmed a desultory fifth-place finish. “He was positive with me the whole camp. 

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“He kind of took me under his wing almost in that he was constantly telling me how much he believed in me as a player and my ability, that I did have the talent but I just need to keep refining my skills and keep improving to get to my potential. One thing he said a lot is no one knows how good you can be.

“That was something I took to heart because you don’t and the only way you can get there is by constantly pushing yourself, so I feel like he was really good with me in terms of keeping me motivated and keeping me on the job and just making it seem like I was part of the squad, I wasn’t just there to build numbers. That is how I felt.”

Eligible for Italy through his father’s connection, Odogwu was courted over the winter by Franco Smith but he ultimately turned down their offer of a Test level call-up. Having been left uncapped by England, though, he is still uncaptured and could conceivable still represent the Azzurri if they came calling again, but Odogwu won’t be changing allegiance as he believes he has a promising future ahead under Jones.      

“Definitely, England is the place for me,” he insisted. “I have been in the set-up and I know what I need to do to get into that team. I feel like I can’t run away from it now because I haven’t been picked (to play) in one camp. For me, it’s just to keep pushing and see how far I can get.

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I had proper chats with Franco Smith and the Italy set-up and all their coaches and it would have been a great honour to play for them but I was like, ‘I know my own ability and I know I am good enough to be in the England set-up’. I had a week to make that decision and I said, ‘I’m going to back myself here’. I didn’t even know (at the time) I was in the England squad but I just had to commit to either side and I chose England and I chose right in terms of just believing in my own ability and hopefully pushing forward and getting into the team.”

Reflecting on the social media frenzy his lack of match-day selection by England generated, Odogwu dismissed allegations he was merely left holding a tackle bag throughout his eight weeks in camp, initially at St George’s Park and then at The Lensbury in London. “I did see it,” he said about the fuss his continued match-day exclusion caused.

“It wasn’t hard to miss because a lot of people have a lot of opinions. It was quite nice seeing so many people back me but you don’t take it to heart. I’m the only one in the setup so I’m the only one who really knows what was going on. It was nice to see but I felt there wasn’t anything really true being said. 

“It was a lot of not being picked and holding bags which wasn’t the case. Everyone there was training properly, everyone there was doing everything the same, so I felt like I was getting a lot out of it so to see people think I just helped out for eight weeks I was like, ‘That wasn’t what happened’.

“I found the whole experience a chance to step back and reflect on my own game because I was like, ‘I have done pretty well to get here but how can I keep getting better and how can I evolve my game because I’m not the finished article?’

“I knew there was stuff that I had to work on and stuff that is only going to make me better, so it was a great experience in terms of taking myself out of the Wasps environment where you finish a game, have a couple of days recovery and then you are prepping for the next team.

“When I didn’t play for five, six weeks or whatever it was I could actually have that time to pick at individual parts of my game that I wanted to improve and when you go back you can see those improvements.   

“We pretty much got a match-day hit in the Wednesday training (anyway), it was pretty full-on so I still felt I was getting that. You want to play but it’s one of the best teams in the world. I was happy just to be able to compare myself with those players and figure out I’m not too far off here, I can hold my own in this squad. I could keep improving while I was there and I felt like it was good for me.”

Apart from an injured shoulder in training around the time of the round three Wales match, Odogwu was involved in everything, including travelling to all the games even though he was never listed in an England match-day 23.

“We literally went everywhere together so I was at all the games which was nice as it was the first time I had been that close to the environment and seeing how everyone prepares, the warm-up and everything. Just being there was a bit surreal but it was also quite cool to experience. 

“On those days when you had the team playing, you had the non-playing boys do another session so you still get that fitness hit out of it. We were all training the same, we were all travelling everywhere,” he said, adding there were never weeks when he felt he wasn’t in with a chance of a debut selection.

“You never really knew, especially in training the teams would change a lot because we would train as a red and a white team and whoever was in those teams would shift quite a lot. So you would never really know what the team was going to be but I felt like I did have a few really good sessions where I was really building.

“I then took a knock to my shoulder which meant I missed a couple of sessions which set me back and I had to work my way back into everything. I didn’t have a week where I was, ‘I’m definitely playing this week’ and then I didn’t get picked. Obviously, you want to play and you look forward to the team selection, but I was trying to keep a level head throughout.

“I feel like it doesn’t just build your playing ability, it builds your character because it is not easy completely changing your environment and going into a completely new squad with completely new people and then pretty much living there.

“You had to learn to adapt and to be able to throw yourself straight into that environment to learn as much as possible. I did that quite well. I’m naturally a quite chilled out person, I like to keep myself to myself and I found I had to really try and chat to everyone as much as possible, especially with all the Covid regulations, not being able to have that social time… it will definitely help in the long run making myself a part of the squad.”

Now back at Wasps, there were fears that the swagger he exhibited over winter, confidence that culminated in an exhilarating display at Bath, would be damaged. That hasn’t been the case, thankfully. “I don’t feel like I lost it which is good,” he said. “I felt like definitely going into a different environment and training with that calibre of player you have to raise yours standards anyway, so going back to playing for Wasps I was naturally just trying to keep myself at that level and I felt like in the Clermont and Exeter games I was able to show that I haven’t forgotten to play rugby, I can still play.

“There are going to be certain things you do get a bit rusty on, like tackling properly because I haven’t had to make a full-on tackle in a while, but all in all I feel like I haven’t lost the level of confidence I had before. I still have that self-belief that if I see something is on I am going to go for it and just keep backing my own ability. I feel like I have kept doing that.”

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J
Jon 6 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 9 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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Adrian 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

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