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England U20s Ollie Allan: 'It has worked out, I've got myself here'
By Liam Heagney
It’s been quite the recent adventure for Ollie Allan, this Friday’s England No9 in the World Rugby U20 Championship final versus France in Cape Town. Thirteen months ago, he was suddenly made redundant. London Irish collapsed, leaving the senior academy member at an awkward loose end that was eventually tied up via a trial at Leicester and a subsequent contract offer from them to complement his university studies at Loughborough.
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Then came his ill-timed injury. A hamstring tore on the Oval Park training ground and it ruled him out of Six Nations selection with England. He was delighted that they went on and won the title without him but all the same, until he got the call to come back in from Mark Mapletoft there would have been a fear that his spell of unavailability had tanked his selections chances.
Not so. Named as the starting scrum-half for the June 29 opener versus Argentina, he has gone on to be one of only two players named to start in all five England games at the Championship – skipper Finn Carnduff is the other. He has enjoyed the challenge of repaying this selection trust.
“It was exciting to be able to push myself hard because I wanted to continue what they had done well in the Six Nations,” he told RugbyPass, seated in the same hotel lobby corner in Cape Town where Junior Kpoku, Asher Opoku-Fordjour, captain Carnduff, coach Mapletoft and Nathan Michelow have all said their piece to this website over the course of the tournament. “I knew the job I had to do to come in so that I could keep up the pace.
“You got that sort of trust from the coaches so you have got to go out and prove it and prove to yourself that you deserve to be out here, and also remember that we speak a lot about the brotherhood so remember that we are in the one collective growing up through whatever, the last three years, so we have got to do it together.
“It’s been good form, consistent form. I’d say we still haven’t reached our full potential, which is a positive going into the last game – we know we have more in us. We know we have got to start quicker, earlier, not put ourselves on the back foot and when we get into patches where it’s a stalemate, making sure when you are in the trench someone will come out firing.”
Allan adores the brotherhood culture. “It’s off-field, behind the cameras, none of the rugby stuff. Just how we integrate as a group, how we always get behind each other if one bloke gets injured or someone has had like a s**t training session, and then just the small things like around the bus, at dinner, meetings. Good craic.”
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Please elaborate. “We go to the Waterfront, have coffees together as a group, a bit of shopping. We have to do a lot of analysis, so we get in our positional groups and analyse the games, then come back as one team. We have a musical show, some of the lads have got instruments. It’s a spin the wheel; if you are unlucky to get chosen you have to have an instrument, recorders, harmonica. We have a darts competition as well, and were watching the Euros.”
Rugby has been Allan’s thing since the age of five. “Mum would take me to rugby sessions as a kid and then my dad became a coach at the club I was playing at [Hungerford], so I sort of loved the idea that my family were following me through that.
“I went to the Berkshire counties, which is obviously linked with Irish. Got picked up by Irish as a 15/10 and then one of the coaches, Patrick O’Grady, saw abilities that I hadn’t noticed so he transitioned me to scrum-half. I went through there, trusted the process that I was going to make it.”
The learning invested in him proved invaluable in the panic of June 2023, London Irish going bust and leaving all players/staff in the lurch. Looking back now, he highlights the silver lining that so many talented people soon found new positions.
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“It’s gone quickly (the 13 months since collapse). I also see it as a positive seeing a lot of the boys who were there find new roles and new clubs, so it’s nice to see everyone has found something out of it. I was on the phone the moment it happened with different universities and my agent was on the phone to different clubs.
“Speaking to coaches and Mark about what he thought would be best for me, we settled that Leicester were happy to have me on a trial over pre-season. I went to Loughborough Uni and then Leicester saw good in me and signed me. It was quite swift, a trial period where you had to sort of put your head down.”
His Tigers experience has been transformative. “It has brought me a lot. The likes of Ben Youngs, Jack van Poortvliet, being around Handre Pollard, those sort of players have experienced the top level, they have done it all. Handre has won two World Cups.
“Those are the players you want to learn from. I ask them as many questions as possible which is what I have been doing. It’s a great coaching staff as well. They’re behind me, letting me progress on-loan [Loughborough Students], calling me in, trusting me with starting some of the friendlies and it has worked out, I have got myself here.”
What was the best answer he got to all the questions he asked the star first-teamers? “I spoke a lot with Ben Youngs about dealing with that sort of pressure with kicking. He said the same thing to me, you know your own process, just visualise where you want to go when you are putting up the box kick and then trust your swing and let the ball do the rest. He just told me to relax, don’t put the pressure on myself and trust your own ability.”
That ‘trust’ message has stood the test of time, Allan shrugging off his hamstring frustration to ensure he would be ready if the recall call came from Mapletoft. “I was injured for the Six Nations, a hamstring tear. It was in training at Leicester, it just happened. I was watching (the last France-England) game at my uni house. Excited. Relaxed as well because I trusted the boys, I knew they would go and do a job out there.”
Now he is one of the players trusted to go out and do a repeat job this Friday with the World Rugby Championship title on the line. “I’d say I’m quick, organised, controlled, look to create, look for space, always trying to see the option to get us moving forward.
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“In attack, I’m sort of let a lot of it through our 10 but defensively I am very loud, making sure we are organised, making sure certain forwards are going to like… if it is one of our forwards who is going to fly out of the line, making sure I put a name on him and making sure that he knows that it is his hit.
“France are a good side, they are a team that will trust their structure, trust their plan and when it goes well for them they usually get good momentum. Again, it’s a well-coached team. We have got to make sure we disrupt that. Everyone knows the job we have to do… we just have got to make sure we do our stuff well.
“Winning would do a lot for us, a lot for the fans as well and that support back home, build that trust back up again with the squad and the younger players coming through. It also builds up that excitement that they can go out and do it as well.”
Allan’s family will watch the final unfold from England. “I told them not to go. I said it was quite a long way. We have an old dog as well so we can’t leave him alone, but I just said I’m happy for you guys to watch it at home.”
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