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Unused England call-up Paolo Odogwu to start first match since January 8 as Wasps make three changes to face Clermont

(Photo by PA)

Paolo Odogwu is finally set to start his first match of any kind for twelve weeks after spending the entire Guinness Six Nations championship kicking his heels as Eddie Jones did not involve him in any of the five England matchday squads. Odogwu had set the Gallagher Premiership alive over the winter with his try-scoring exploits for Wasps which culminated in his first-ever call-up by the English. 

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However, he wasn’t capped during the campaign and with players unable to return to their clubs during the tournament in order to protect the integrity of the squad’s safety bubble, it meant Odogwu was left idle for nearly three months after being in the form of his life.

He finally made a return to action off the bench for Wasps in last weekend’s loss to Sale and now steps into his club’s XV for their round of 16 Heineken Champions Cup game at home to Clermont on Saturday, a fixture that will be Wasps’ 100th competitive match at Ricoh Arena since they moved to Coventry from Adams Park in 2014.

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Odogwu is one of three changes following the latest Premiership loss for Wasps as Jacob Umaga returns at fly-half to make his Champions Cup debut while the only alteration in the pack sees James Gaskell return to action at blindside flanker, with Brad Shields moving to No8 to take the place of Alfie Barbeary who is out with a calf injury.

There is also a return for Tom Willis, who is named among the replacements. He is joined on the bench by Sione Vailanu, Zach Kibirige and Jimmy Gopperth, who could make his 50th European appearance.

WASPS: 15. Matteo Minozzi; 14. Paolo Odogwu, 13. Malakai Fekitoa, 12. Michael Le Bourgeois, 11. Josh Bassett; 10. Jacob Umaga, 9. Dan Robson; 1. Ben Harris, 2. Tommy Taylor, 3. Kieran Brookes, 4. Joe Launchbury (capt), 5. Will Rowlands, 6. James Gaskell, 7. Thomas Young, 8. Brad Shields. Reps: 16. Gabriel Oghre, 17. Jack Owlett, 18. Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 19. Sione Vailanu, 20. Tom Willis, 21. Sam Wolstenholme, 22. Jimmy Gopperth, 23. Zach Kibirige.

CLERMONT: 15. Kotaro Matsushima; 14. Damian Penaud, 13. George Moala, 12. Wesley Fofana, 11. Alivereti Raka; 10. Camille Lopez (capt), 9. Sébastien Bezy, 1. Peni Ravai, 2. Adrien Pelissie, 3. Cristian Ojovan, 4. Paul Jedrasiak, 5. Sébastien Vahaamahina, 6. Judicael Cancoriet, 7. Alexandre Fischer, 8. Fritz Lee. Reps: 16. Etienne Fourcade, 17. Daniel Bibi Biziwu, 18. Rabah Slimani, 19. Thibaud Lanen, 20. Peceli Yato, 21. Morgan Parra, 22. Tim Nanai-Williams, 23. Peter Betham. 

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J
JW 4 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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