Nigerian-born rugby union player, Paolo Chukwudi Odogwu, has officially dumped the England rugby team as he has been named in Italy’s World Cup team.
Odogwu was born in Coventry, England to Nigerian and Italian parents which made him eligible to play for any of the three countries.
Since he was born and bred in England, he had dreamed of playing for the country’s senior team. He had started the process of achieving that by representing the England rugby team in the under-18s and 20s levels.
The big break for the 26-year-old winger for Benetton Rugby in the United Rugby Championship, came when he was invited to the England Senior Test team for the 2021 Six Nations.
At the end of the day, Odogwu was deemed not good enough to make the final cut and had to be sidelined. This shattered his dream of playing for England, hence, he switched his allegiance to Italy.
Luckily for him, Odogwu was named in Italy’s training squad for the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and on 5 July 2023, he was selected to be part of an Italy squad for the 2023 Rugby World Cup warm-up matches.
Odogwu made his debut against Ireland in the second match of 5 August 2023 and Italy’s head coach Kieran Crowley named him to the country’s World Cup squad earlier today, August 21, 2023.
Italy are in group A of the 2023 Rugby World Cup which will commence on September 8, 2023, in France. The Italian team who are in the same pot with the hosts France, New Zealand, Namibia, and Uruguay, will commence their campaign against Namibia on September 9.
