Odendaal ready for more after making his long-awaited Saints debut

The powerful South African centre finally got to make his debut for the black, green and gold, starting in the 21-17 Gallagher Premiership win against Sale Sharks at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

Odendaal joined Saints from Japanese side Toshiba Brave Lupus Tokyo during the summer, but he arrived with a shoulder injury.

He then suffered a setback after returning to training as he was sidelined with a hamstring issue, meaning his debut was delayed further.

But Saints managed him carefully and finally thrust him into action against the Sharks last Saturday.

"It's been so tough," Odendaal said.

"It's hard to believe that the last game I played was in March.

"I had a lot of cobwebs that I needed to get rid of.

"It's been tough, getting here, being injured, getting back to training and then getting another injury.

"I've spent so much time with Ben Rhodes (strength and conditioning coach) so I'm really glad I'm not spending as much time with him any more.

"I get to spend some time with the boys now, which is awesome.

"Hopefully there are many more appearances to come."

Saints came back from 14-0 and 17-7 down to defeat the Sharks.

And Odendaal said: "I'm just glad we got the win.

"I don't think it was the prettiest game to watch but I'm really glad we got the result.

"It wasn't pretty at all but the first half could have gone a bit differently. We went down 7-0 and we just knew we had to stay in the fight, keep to our process and at the end we could get the result.

"There were a couple of harsh words in the dressing room but we knew if we stuck to our guns we could win the game.

"The Premiership is an awesome competition and every weekend is going to be a tough game so it's vital you get a result, especially in a home game.

"It was a great way to end the year."