Allen celebrates ‘unbelievable’ call-up to face All Blacks
The 20-year-old Millfield School product will feature in front of a Twickenham record 82,000 crowd next Sunday as England strive to avoid a demoralising sixth successive defeat.
Allen, Gloucester’s star performer during an unbeaten start to their Guinness Premiership campaign, has made just 23 first team appearances since arriving at Kingsholm.
He will be joined by fellow England newcomer Shaun Perry, the Bristol scrum-half plucked from National League One club Coventry and now making his Test debut as one of three vice-captains in a team led by Leicester’s Martin Corry.
“It is obviously a fantastic feeling — pretty unbelievable,” said Allen. “It has come around very quickly for me. At the start of the season, I was just concentrating on establishing myself at Gloucester, so to be selected for England so quickly is something very special.”
Allen will partner Jamie Noon in midfield against the All Blacks, with Perry promoted above Allen’s Kingsholm colleague Peter Richards, who started both Tests during the summer tour of Australia.
England coach Andy Robinson has not yet announced the replacements for Sunday, while Josh Lewsey, Olly Morgan, Mathew Tait and James Forrester all joined an absentee list that already included proven Test match performers such as Olly Barkley, Matt Stevens and Steve Borthwick.
Leicester provide five of the pack — Corry, Moody, Kay, prop Julian White and hooker George Chuter, who starts his first Test at Twickenham — but Tigers’ fellow Premiership heavyweights Wasps do not contribute to Robinson’s starting XV.
Meanwhile, Ryan Jones believes Wales have nothing to fear from their four autumn internationals, starting with Australia at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
The Lions number eight insists Wales can hold their own against the Wallabies, the Pacific Islands, Canada and most notably New Zealand.
“I’m confident that we can give all four of these games a good go. I think we owe New Zealand one certainly,” said 25 year-old Jones.
“We have got nothing to fear. Over the recent weeks in Europe the Welsh regions have proved that.
“It’s a case of not being afraid, because if we get a good platform up front we have some of the best backs in the world.
“The only thing that’s going to kill us is us. We have got to make sure we don’t go into our shell. We have got to go out there and put a show on.”
Glasgow Warriors pair Scott Lawson and Sam Pinder have been called into this week’s Scotland training squad ahead of the autumn Test series. Hooker Lawson and scrum-half Pinder were drafted in after Dougie Hall and Mike Blair were injured during Edinburgh’s 25-24 Heineken Cup win over Leinster.
Scotland face Romania on November 11 before Pacific Islanders and Australia visit on the following two Saturdays.
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