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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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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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f
fl 1 hour ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

“He won a ECL and a domestic treble at the beginning of his career.”

He won 2 ECLs at the beginning of his career (2009, 2011). Since then he’s won 1 in 15 years.


“He then won 3 leagues on the bounce later in his career”

He won 3 leagues on the bounce at the start of his career too - (2009, 2010, 2011).


If we’re judging him by champions league wins, he peaked in his late 30s, early 40s. If we’re judging him by domestic titles he’s stayed pretty consistent over his career. If we’re judging him by overall win rate he peaked at Bayern, and was better at Barcelona than at City. So no, he hasn’t gotten better by every measure.


“You mentioned coaches were older around the mid-2010’s compared to the mid-2000’s. Robson was well above the average age you’ve given for those periods even in the 90’s when in his pomp.”

Robson was 63-64 when he was at Barcelona, so he wasn’t very old. But yeah, he was slightly above the average age of 60 I gave for the top 4 premier league coaches in 2015, and quite a bit above the averages for 2005 and 2025.


“Also, comparing coaches - and their experiences, achievements - at different ages is unstable. It’s not a valid way to compare and tends to torpedo your own logic when you do compare them on equal terms. I can see why you don’t like doing it.”

Well my logic certainly hasn’t been torpedoed. Currently the most successful premier league coaches right now are younger than they were ten years ago. You can throw all the nuance at it that you want, but that fact won’t change. It’s not even clear what comparing managers “on equal terms” would even mean, or why it would be relevant to anything I’ve said.


“You still haven’t answered why Kiss could be a risker appointment?”

Because I’ve been talking to you about football managers. If you want to change the subject then great - I care a lot more about rugby than I do football.

But wrt Kiss, I don’t agree that 25 years experience is actually that useful, given what a different sport rugby was 25 years ago. Obviously in theory more experience can never be a bad thing, but I think 10 years of coaching experience is actually more than enough these days. Erasmus had been a coach for 13 years when he got the SA top job. Andy Farrell had been a coach for 9 when he got the Ireland job. I don’t think anyone would say that either of them were lacking in experience.


Now - what about coaches who do have 25+ years experience? The clearest example of that would be Eddie Jones, who started coaching 31 years ago. He did pretty well everywhere he worked until around 2021 (when he was 61), when results with England hit a sharp decline. He similarly oversaw a terrible run with Australia, and currently isn’t doing a great job with Japan.

Another example is Warren Gatland, who also started coaching full-time 31 years ago, after 5 years as a player-coach. Gatland did pretty well everywhere he went until 2020 (when he was 56), when he did a relatively poor job with the Chiefs, before doing a pretty poor job with the Lions, and then overseeing a genuine disaster with Wales. There are very few other examples, as most coaches retire or step back into lesser roles when they enter their 60s. Mick Byrne actually has 34 years experience in coaching (but only 23 years coaching in rugby) and at 66 he’s the oldest coach of a top 10 side, and he’s actually doing really well. He goes to show that you can continue to be a good coach well into your 60s, but he seems like an outlier.


So the point is - right now, Les Kiss looks like a pretty reliable option, but 5 years ago so did Eddie Jones and Warren Gatland before they went on to prove that coaches often decline as they get older. If Australia want Kiss as a short term appointment to take over after Schmidt leaves in the summer, I don’t think that would be a terrible idea - but NB wanted Kiss as a long term appointment starting in 2027! That’s a massive risk, given the chance that his aptitude will begin to decline.


Its kind of analagous to how players decline. We know (for example) that a fly-half can still be world class at 38, but we also know that most fly-halves peak in their mid-to-late 20s, so it is generally considered a risk to build your game plan around someone much older than that.

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AlanCriner 1 hour ago
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29 Go to comments
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AlanCriner 1 hour ago
Exeter look to Charlie Chapman to boost scrum-half options

My name is Alan Criner, and I'm a resident of Toronto, CA. I'm a 45-year-old financial analyst who has always been cautious with my investments. However, in my quest to diversify my portfolio, I fell prey to a devastating fake crypto investment scam, losing 125,000 Canadian dollars' worth of Bitcoin. This traumatic experience sent my life into a downward spiral, leaving me depressed and feeling hopeless.

Despite my repeated attempts to contact the account manager who initially approached me on Telegram, I was met with silence. They refused to provide any explanation or information, and I was locked out of my account on their website. The authorities were unable to assist me, as the scammers were untraceable.

Just when I thought all was lost, my nephew, a Canadian government lawyer, introduced me to Morphohack Cyber Service, a reputable private investigator and crypto recovery company. I visited their website (www . morphohackcyber . com) and, after mustering the courage, contacted them. They listened attentively as I recounted my ordeal and educated me on the scam, revealing that numerous others had fallen victim to the same scheme.

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NB 3 hours ago
Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

https://www.london.edu/think/how-claudio-ranieri-transformed-leicester-city


He jts knew how to use that deep well of knowledge accumulate over many years of management. A true Moneyball story!

168 Go to comments
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