‘Frustrated’ Paolo can shine again for Wasps
PAOLO Odogwu has returned to Wasps injury-free if not a ‘bit frustrated’ after not making his England debut during the Guinness Six Nations.
That is the view of his head coach Lee Blackett, who has the 24-year-old available for selection for the first time in 11 weeks for Saturday’s visit of Sale Sharks to the Ricoh Arena.
Odogwu’s man-of-the-match display against Bath on January 8 helped secure a first senior international callup as Eddie Jones named him in his 28-man squad for the 2021 tournament.
But the winger/centre did not feature in a matchday squad, even when Max Malins was forced to withdraw from the Ireland match prompting
Ollie Lawrence to be promoted from the bench. Rather than give Odogwu his shot among the replacements, Jones opted instead to add another forward in George Martin. The Leicester Tigers teenager played the final 16 minutes of the 32-18 defeat – England’s third of the competition.
Odogwu’s club boss
Blackett confirmed his player was fit for selection and trained with England last week.
“He’s alright,” said Blackett. “He saw the physio this morning. There’s no issues there. He would’ve been fine for the weekend to play if they’d chosen him. That’s what I believe to have been said.”
He added: “I think he’s enjoyed his experience. He’s obviously frustrated, he’d have loved to have played. As you can imagine.
“The brief conversations I’ve had with him, he’s really enjoyed it and he feels like hopefully come back a better player.”
Without their top tryscorer Odogwu and England teammate Dan Robson during the Six Nations period, Wasps lost six of their eight Gallagher Premiership games and averaged just 16 points scored per game. They also didn’t register a single tryscoring bonus point during that time. Wasps had approaches to release Odogwu for some gametime rejected as England head coach Jones referenced the player nursing a shoulder issue.
Hopes of a cap in the final round against Ireland were raised following Henry Slade’s withdrawal after the win over France, but instead Harlequins centre Joe Marchant was drafted in and earned his fifth international cap as a second-half replacement for George Ford.
“Eddie’s experienced enough, he’s seen them, he sees these guys every week, he picks the team he wants to pick,” added Blackett.
“From a purely selfish perspective, we want Pabs to have played for them.
“If you look at the amount he’s played over the last couple of years, he was starting to come into some great form just before he went away with England and now we’ve had 11 weeks since his last game.
“The frustration is, he was in great form there, but having said that, we can’t get away from we want our guys to be getting international honours.
“He got that opportunity he’s gone away and unfortunately for us, he’s not managed to play within that – 11 weeks without a game can be fairly difficult, but you can imagine the training they’ve been doing with England has been pushing him, so hopefully he’s not too far off the pace.” Blackett added: “He’s coming back hungry, he will probably feel like he’s learned a couple of things and wants to put them in action on the field.
“Without letting on too much, I imagine he’s a little bit frustrated, as you can imagine, coming from last weekend and selection and everything that went on.
“You can’t please everyone. “He’s definitely hungry to get out there.
“I just hope the 11 weeks without a game hasn’t taken anything away from the form he was showing.
“His last game versus Bath, he was outstanding, he really was, fully deserved the man of the match, I just hope he can get straight back to that type of form.” Odogwu also qualifies for Italy through his halfnigerian, half-italian father and the Azzurri did make approaches regarding his availability before England swooped.
Due to Odogwu not making his debut, his international future could still lie away from England and Blackett was asked if Italy head coach Franco Smith had approached the club recently.
The Wasps boss responded: “No, not to me anyway. But he probably should do!”
He’s coming back hungry, he will probably feel like he’s learned a couple of things and wants to put them in action. Lee Blackett