Paolo Odogwu has broken his silence on his uncapped Six Nations with England and how he would react if Italy called again
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.
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.
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.
Odogwu went in uncapped with England in January and is still without a first Test run all these weeks later#SixNations #IREvENG
https://t.co/HDLhqxgBBV— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 17, 2021
“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.
“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.
“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.
On-fire Odogwu has quipped he got his timing wrong in one crucial area this month #GuinnessSixNations #GallagherPrem @TheRugbyPodhttps://t.co/kSzlKeNaGT
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 27, 2021
“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.
The words of Eddie's former mentor were in his thoughts when he made the decision to include Paolo Odogwu as a bolter in his 28-man squad. https://t.co/zl4o2HsIvA
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) January 23, 2021
“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.
?? We are delighted to announce that @notoriousPCO has extended his contract with the club!
? Wasps top try scorer this season
? @EnglandRugby @SixNationsRugby squad Friday
? New contract Monday #MondayMotivationMore at ? https://t.co/BbUQjUgMVb pic.twitter.com/8Zks9SgKKC
— Wasps Rugby (@WaspsRugby) January 25, 2021
“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.”
"Our identity is taking teams to a dirty place and then backing ourselves to be stronger… but we faded"
– Wasps boss Lee Blackett has revealed how bleak and dark Tuesday's post-mortem was into their hammering at Exeter #EXEvWAShttps://t.co/XSYxM39FWG
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 22, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
I’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
69 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
1 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
2 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
2 Go to commentsSo if this ain’t the best Irish team ever then who exactly is? I don’t remember any other Irish team being this good & winning a series in the Land of the Long White Cloud. Yes I may rip them often for 8 X QF RWC exits & twice not even making it to the QF, but they’re a damn good team who many think can only improve, including me!
69 Go to commentsNot a squeek out of Leinster for weeks about this match. So quiet. The first team have been quitely building for this encounter under Nienaber’s direction. All fresh, all highly motivated. They are expecting a season’s best performance from Northhampton. They will match that. They will be fresher and apparently they will have 80,000 out of the 83,000 shouting for them. I do expect Northhampton to turn up big time. Not to be missed. On a tangent it is evident how the loss of a few Premiership teams has in some respect helped other Premiership teams and England. More quality over less teams makes the teams better, which has a knock on effect on England. Not the only factor contributing to England’s rise but one of them.
2 Go to commentsOur very own monster teddy bear Ox😍💪
17 Go to commentsThis is might be the most generalised, entitled, patronising, out-of-pocket cultural indictment on a group of people you’ll ever see on what is supposedly a sports publication. I can only assume the author is weak like a woman or homosexual. I’m feeling an incredible range of emotions but I am not quite sure how to express them. I might go beat up a hockey player - assuming that’s okay with Duane and the boys? 🙂
9 Go to commentsBest thing the Welsh clubs could do is apply to join Gallagher prem surely be more exciting matches for there support than they have now.
2 Go to commentsRugbyPass writers are useless! you guys should get a real job because you all suck at writing about rugby!!!
9 Go to commentslooking forward to RWC2027 …. Boks on mission impossible for the Three-in-a-row, ABs to prove they being on par, France wishing to crown the “DuPont-era”, Ireland knocking on the Semi-Door ….. until then we’ll probably have to deal with Weird Ben’s fantasy-RWC23 (fun fact is, the drivel always creates a flooding of comments) …..
223 Go to commentsBen Smith you really make some good points in this article, the Springboks were not close to perfect and good still beat the All Blacks, imagine if they were as good as they were against France what a hiding the All Blacks would have gotten… maybe another Twickenham drubbing
223 Go to commentsIt is a good argument to keep the Rebels for one more year but also isnt this just opening the door as well for keeping them beyond 2025. If they can create some sort of financial stability in the next year and if their performances lift as they have this season then how would RA even cull them after that? It might be the most cost effective decision at this stage and perhaps many people are guilty of keeping relationships going because of the cost to decouple but then again when does that ever work out well?
29 Go to comments