Sharks winger can smell blood
ODOGWU BELIEVES IT’S A GOOD TIME TO FACE FORMER CLUB
WINGER Paolo Odogwu believes this is the best time for Sale to be facing Leicester Tigers.
Despite losing to the 10-time Premiership winners in September, the Sharks drew against Saracens last weekend in the Premiership Rugby Cup.
While Leicester head into tonight’s Premiership Cup match at Welford Road on the back of their second consecutive cup defeat.
Sale are handing a debut to new signing Robert Du Preez, while Denny Solomona returns to the side.
So Odogwu sees this as Sharks’ best opportunity to win against his former team.
He said: “Welford Road is a fortress most of the time, but they lost against Worcester there last week so if we put in another good, performance, we can do a job.
“They’ve been on the rocks in the last two games, so it’ll be a good time to go down there.”
Odogwu and Will Cliff scored Sale’s tries in the 15-15 draw against Saracens at the AJ Bell, his first since the 21-year-old’s shoulder injury last season. And he knows how important it was to put in a good performance following Sale’s defeat to Worcester in their opening match of the competition.
“We had a disappointing result [against Worcester],” he said. “They put a really strong team out and we had quite a young one.
“It was good to have a better performance against another strong team in Sarries and really show what we can do as a group.
“It was a relief to score because it had been a while,” he added. “It was a great team try, I was just happy to get on the end of it.
“I think we were good enough to win that game [last week],” he said. “We had enough chances, we just weren’t clinical in a couple of situations.”
Having made his first-team debut more than two years ago, Odogwu was one of the more experienced players in the Sale backline against Saracens, so he gave some advice to his younger team-mates.
He said: “For me it was just about being confident because if I wasn’t good enough then I wouldn’t be there.
“I’ve tried to pass that on to all the younger boys,” he added. “It’s just about being confident, backing their own ability and just expressing themselves on the pitch.”
Like many young players, Odogwu recognises the importance of the competition, and has been impressed with the players making the step up to the senior side.
“All of the debut boys have done a really good job,” he said.
“They haven’t looked out of place, they’ve tried their hardest and really brought something else to the team.”
Fly-half Du Preez, who is in the UK for a three-month spell, was a member of the namesake Sharks from Durban when they won the Currie Cup in Cape Town a week last Saturday. And Denny Solomona returns to action for the first time since the Premiership match on the same ground on September 30.