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Getting to know: England U20s scrum-half Ollie Allan

Ollie Allan scores for England in their World Rugby U20 Championship semi-final win over Ireland (Photo by Carl Fourie/World Rugby)

It’s been quite the adventure in South Africa for England, the reigning Six Nations champions emerging from a series of adverse in-game situations to reach this Friday’s World Rugby U20 Championship final versus France.

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Ollie Allan wasn’t available to head coach Mark Mapletoft during the European spring. Instead, he was hamstrung and watched the title-clinching victory over the French in Pau from his university digs in Loughborough.

With that pesky leg ailment since healed, Allan has returned to the England squad and been a key component in what has been achieved so far in the Cape Town winter.

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HITS, BUMPS AND HANDOFFS! | The biggest collisions from the U20s World Championships

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HITS, BUMPS AND HANDOFFS! | The biggest collisions from the U20s World Championships

Only the scrum-half and skipper Finn Carnduff, his Leicester clubmate, have started all four games against Argentina, Fiji, South Africa and Ireland, a run of selection vindicated by the snazzy fashion he ran in his first-half try against the Irish last Sunday at the DHL Stadium.

Preparing for an age-grade World Cup final is very different compared to what Allan was doing at this exact time a year ago. London Irish had just folded and he was scratching around to see what alternative might materialise. It eventually turned out to be Tigers.

Fixture
World Rugby U20 Championship
England U20
21 - 13
Full-time
France U20
All Stats and Data

Ahead of the World Cup final, he took a post-lunchtime break from his England preparations to tackle the RugbyPass Q&A, a quickfire 36-question, five-section session where his answers included Ben Youngs, Patrick O’Grady and Bawo:

THE BASICS
Born: February 4, 2004;
Joined England age-grade: First game was at Millfield U18s against Italy;
Club: Leicester;
Height: 6ft;
Weight: 89kg;
Position: Scrum-half;
Boots: Adidas RS15 (Nike Tiempo in recent games);
Gumshield: I’ve a retainer one;
Headgear: No;
School: St John’s in Marlborough.

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RATE YOURSELF (out of 100)
Pace: 92, I back myself;
Passing: 90;
Tackling: 82.

THE PAST
My favourite England player of all time is… I would say Ben Youngs is definitely up there;

Favourite try I have ever scored is… Probably against DMP for Rams when I was on loan last year. It was halfway, a little snipe and then gassed it to the line;

A rugby memory that makes me smile is… Playing for Hungerford, my local grassroots team seniors. Getting a run out there was quite fun a couple of years ago;

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The moment I realised I could make it is… I’d say when I transitioned to scrum-half. That was at London Irish. My coach Patrick O’Grady transitioned me to scrum-half. I sort of started getting more trust from the coaches and felt I was progressing more quickly;

One piece of advice I would give to my younger self is… Trust the process;

My best subject in school was… God, this is bad; PE. I used to do history. I wasn’t very good but I enjoyed it;

The first player who made me fall in love with rugby is… That’s a good question. I don’t really know. I’d say probably watching (Manu) Tuilagi;

Growing up, my position was… I was 10, 15 at Irish before moving to scrum-half. At my Hungerford club I started at 10, then went to centre, back to 10 and then to nine;

The coach who has most impacted my game is… My dad and I would say Patrick O’Grady as well.

THE PRESENT
My best attributes on the field are… My kicking, speed of pass, physicality;

One thing I’m doing to improve my education is… I’m at Loughborough, sports science;

My favourite current England player is… Ben Earl;

My favourite YouTuber is… Beta Squad;

My hardest working teammate is… Finn (Carnduff), the captain;

My most skilful teammate is… I’d say Ben Redshaw is probably up there;

My favourite training drill is… 15-v-15;

My favourite music artist is… This changes every week. I do a lot of Bawo, quite a low key artist.

THE FUTURE
A player who could go all the way is… Asher (Opoku-Fordjour);

If I could play with anyone, I would like to play with… Anybody? I guess Dan Carter. It would be nice to be paired with him;

I will be happy with my career if I… Continue to make my family proud, if my future kids see me as a role model, someone to look up to;

One thing I want to add to my game is… My sort of, what’s the word, attacking threat around the breakdown;

If I could play in any other country, I would play in… I’d love to play in France;

One person I want to meet is… Anyone in the world? I haven’t really thought about that. Chris Hemsworth;

One trophy I would love to win is… The World Cup.

  • Click here to sign up to RugbyPass TV for free live coverage of matches from the 2024 World Rugby U20 Championship in countries that don’t have an exclusive local host broadcaster deal

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J
JW 1 hour ago
Where is the new breed of All Black 10?

Maybe Covid-19 did us some favours after all

NZR and Australia had a great opportunity to dump Super Rugby and reset with a more sustainable future, but unfortunately they only had eyes on getting back to playing asap, ditto the South Africans with their departure for the immediate salvation in URC. How ironic, to try to continue it on only to have it ripped up, with your squandered chance at something new gone.

You might look at the guys that have shown a lot of loyalty to us [like Richie]

No, that’s a bad edit. Why does it need to be a lot of loyalty though? If Richie had of won a RWC for New Zealand surely that would make up for a lack of loyalty in this regard? Of course Mo’unga had said goodbye long before that but Beauden Barrett had also, and he got offered a sabbatical deal to return despite no longer technically being on NZRs books. I guess the elephant here is that Richie accepted a 3 year deal, but that’s what the JRLO teams want, not 1 year, not even 2 years. Why does it have to be about his All Black status that determines loyalty as well? Why can’t any NZ player be given a sabbatical after 8 full SR seasons, and still be able to hold onto that dream if they find themselves flourishing in an overseas environment?

The All Blacks’ brand has to be seen to be ultimate sporting success story to attract and sustain sponsorship, which spools the debate all the way back to selection policy and Razor’s ability to pick players plying their trade abroad.

We’ll see if you understand your oxymoron here. No, no other side of the coin presented, not even a cursory to those you know who’ll post lol The reason the brand has been such a success is put solely down to the selection policy, how are you going to change the opinion on that? I don’t think it’s possible, I can see change when they give up trying. Thankfully that looks a long way off and a return to number one immanent for this ‘last hope’ of a rugby stronghold.

Jacomb was on the field for the first 51 minutes, D-Mac played the full 80. During the time with Jacomb at 10 and McKenzie at 15, the Chiefs were losing 6-14.

What were the stats then though? That’s what I’d like to know.

Mo’unga may be on sabbatical in Japan, but absence has if anything increased his importance to New Zealand rugby

Unfortunately JRLO made some changes to their content protection this year, unsure why, so no, his absences has unfortunately morphed into obscurity. Thankfully Rugby Pass TV has come to the table and given one game a week to NZ viewers if anyone is interested (myself it kinda came too late in the piece).


Please to see Jacomb get through his third start with such aplomb. Another tight game this week so perhaps another tight performance needed by him again. The Chiefs have lost their second starting fullback so Dmac might be asked to continue in the position for a while yet.

6 Go to comments
J
JW 2 hours ago
Super Rugby rolls back the years but challenges lie ahead

There is no appetite – either in New Zealand and Australia or Japan – to recreate a separate team like the Sunwolves to sit as a sole representative in Super Rugby.

If theres no appetite, why are you suggesting it?


Any JRLO involvement is a long way off were SR looses its place, and is only a equivalent of the Champions Cup. Which if happened, would still be a general overall win.


Any inclusion of the Jaguares would also require a recalibration of that tournament. Argentina would not be able to field a strong team by themselves (without changing Los Pumas eligibility again, which we don’t want them to do), it needs the full support of Super Rugby Americas, a competition which runs from Feb to Jun as well. I suppose it really depends how many stars UAR could bring back home, Jaquares have been brought back, so maybe they do have an aim, but would they accept hosting their games out of Santiago (just an hr further than Tokyo)?


One thing I could see change is SRP moving to finish in Oct.


Edit: The Sunwolves brand is pretty much Brave Lupus now I’d imagine so this team would need a new name, and I still see Tokyo as being the best place economically to place a new team, but would SRA and MLR get together to share a team their if they don’t have the players to do it individually? It just seems a waste of brand expenditure just for these unions to dip their foot into SR. Perhaps it’s a Hawaiian team?

3 Go to comments
S
Stacy K Davis 4 hours ago
Crusaders prepare for 'dangerous in all elements' Chiefs game-breaker

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