And Paolo in the Telegraph:
Paolo Odogwu puts his faith in Eddie Jones as he aims to change 'gentlemanly' perception
Odogwu is not your typical rugby player and his self-confidence is clear as he aims to reverse Wasps' fortunes
One of the more curious aspects of England’s Six Nations campaign, which escapes mention within the Rugby Football Union’s debrief, was the case of Paolo Odogwu.
The Wasps flier was called up in January as the in-form player in the Premiership with Italy also interested in his services. The rugby public waited for Odogwu to be unleashed. And they kept waiting. Even when Henry Slade picked up an injury before the final game against Ireland, Joe Marchant was parachuted in ahead of Odogwu who remains uncapped.
As ever it is hard to determine Eddie Jones’ logic in letting a red-hot weapon go cold — especially when other players were so clearly out of form — but the frustration that many supporters felt on Odogwu’s behalf was not shared by the man himself. Crucially despite remaining eligible for Italy, the 24-year-old is nailing his colours to the red rose mast. “It wasn’t hard to miss as a lot of people have a lot of opinions,” Odogwu said. “It is quite nice seeing so many people backing me. But you don’t take it to heart.
“I’m the only one in the setup so the only one who really knows what’s going on. It was nice to see, but I felt there wasn’t anything true said being said. I felt like I was getting a lot out of it. For it to be ‘he’s holding bags for eight weeks’, it was like ‘well I haven’t!’ I was happy to just be able to compare myself with the players and figure out that I am not too far off here, I can hold my own in this squad.
“Definitely England is the place for me. I’ve been in the setup and know what I need to do to get into that team. I can’t just run away from it now as I haven’t been picked in one camp.”
So if he wasn’t holding tackle bags what was Odogwu doing? For the most part, he was observing the hyper-professional standards set by Jonny May and Anthony Watson and reflecting upon his own game. “When I did not play for 5-6 weeks I had that time to pick out individual parts of my game that I wanted to improve so when I went back you could see those improvements,” Odogwu said. “I feel like it doesn’t just build your playing ability it builds your character.
“Eddie was positive with me for the whole camp, took me under his wing almost and was constantly telling me how much he believed in me as a player, and my ability. He said I had the talent but needed to keep refining my skills, keep improving to get to my potential. The one thing he says a lot is that no one knows how good you can be – that’s something I really took to heart. You don’t.”
Nor was Odogwu twiddling his thumbs during the hours of downtime at the Lensbury Club. Instead, he was doodling designs off an A2 sketchpad for his clothing brand, Composure Club, which he set up with his Wasps teammate Jacob Umaga. Odogwu comes from a creative family — his mother has a degree in art — and he makes a point of standing out on the pitch with his red highlights and customised boots.
“It is hard to show your personality in rugby because it is such a, I don’t really know what the word is, gentlemanly sport,” Odogwu said. “You don’t have those massive characters, apart from a couple of people, as you would in American football or basketball. For me to express myself with my boots and having red hair and stuff like that, it is nice to be able to bring a bit of individuality to the sport.
“I had a lot of brand stuff to work on while I was there so I could do my designs. We had a lot of free time so I could randomly think of a design and sketch it down, It was good to have that amount of time to hone in on my designs and get to do a bit of drawing without anything else to think about.”
Wasps face Bath on Sunday which was the match in which Odogwu really caught Jones’ eye with a sensational performance in a 52-44 win at the Rec. Since then Wasps, last season’s Premiership finalists, have found themselves in a tailspin losing nine of their subsequent 11 fixtures.
It feels that Lee Blackett’s side just need a spark to reignite their season and Odogwu, who says he is still fizzing with confidence, is hoping to provide it. “That (Bath match) was probably one of the best games I have ever played,” Odogwu said. “I have only got fond memories of that game and I really enjoyed myself. If I can replicate what I did and we can replicate what we did it is not going to be too far off. Looking back at that and seeing how far I have come since then is nice to reflect on.
“All in all I feel like I haven’t lost the level of confidence I had before, there is always that self-belief that if I see something that I think is on I am going to go for it and keep backing my own ability and I think I have kept doing that.”
Topic: Paolo and England (Read 808 times)
Always a Wasp