Quite annoyed – let’s say – for the feat of companies that escaped by a hair, David Odiase opened all the locks of his heart and his head and overwhelmed the reporter who after Italy-France in the Six Nations Under 20 rugby awaited the usual sentences of circumstance. A powerful oration, a manifesto, you decide after listening to it (below), certainly just over a minute of hard and exciting words, improvised and overwhelming that have been around the world, even overflowing from the rugby enclosure which is actually cramped only in Italy.
A step back: the Italy Under 20 has been getting stronger for some seasons, much stronger than the “big” team, especially since it has been entrusted to Massimo Brunello from Rovigo and since the training system based on the federal academies began finally distilling quality elements with continuity. To say, the Under 18 and Under 20 formations, those in which David Odiase played and still plays, born in Crema to Nigerian parents, have ultimately beaten and replayed great England (one and a half million members, at least 20 times more than us ), something unheard of and unedited, never achieved by seniors.
However, the Italian Under 20 in the Six Nations has always been missing just one scalp, precisely that of France who on Friday evening at Monigo Treviso saved their skin by a point (27-28) at the last minute despite only scoring 3 tries (one donated by the referee) against the 5 genuine marked by the Italians. An absolute cancellation, very bitter to swallow, also because the forecast was heavily against the Azzurrini who instead largely dominated the French thanks also to the charges and tackles of a wild Odiase, elected in the end the best player of the match.
That’s why it was he, and not just Captain Giovanni Quattrini, who ended up in front of the cameras.
“I am proud and happy of the recognition of Mvp and I am also proud of the behavior of the team” said this twenty-year-old, who likes to quote Giovanni Verga (Simone Battaggia of Gazzetta dello Sport discovered it), a qualified accountant, who grew up playing football in Crema (goalkeeper) and rugby, sketched out by Filippo Frati at Colorno in the Top 10 (the oval Serie A) and passed this season to the professionals of Oyonnax, north of Lyon, in ProD2, the demanding transalpine Serie B (here, the The other night he was an amen away from beating his team mates beyond the Alps.) One meter and 90 for 107 explosive kilos in the role of third row, hunter of opponents and balls.
So Odiase “proud of the recognition”, yes, of course, but that sentence was only the incipit, the “good evening” of a well-mannered boy.
The crescendo with the peremptoriness of a leader ready to do anything for his team, a surprising attitude in a neo-twenty year old: “You have seen our courage and our passion. We are reaping the fruits of a very hard work and progress can be seen, in the past there was touched so much m… but now we are on our way to face all the big teams on an equal footing, with this match we are sending a message to the whole world, we are coming! Italy is coming! You will see already from the next match (away against England, Friday at 20, SkySport and now, ed) and then at the World Cup (June in South Africa”. If you listen to him you will understand why the Anglo-Saxons have defined the message of David Odiase, a rugby player born in Crema, as a “heartbreaker”, the soprano omen “Panther”. (And, while you’re at it, below you can also find the same player’s speech before the match, useful if you need motivation even if you don’t play rugby).
And so he charged up the team before the match: “Always together, even if we make mistakes, we get back up together” Video
