Ryan attacks Allen exclusion

By Ben Blackmore  

Ryan attacks Allen exclusion

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Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan watched young prodigy Anthony Allen win his side four important points against Wasps, and then attacked England for making him available.

Allen scored a super breakaway try late on to clinch a 27-21 victory that kept the Cherry-and-Whites top of the Guinness Premiership.

However, Ryan was still annoyed that his young talent had been ditched by England boss Andy Robinson, after just two games at international level.

"Two weeks ago Anthony was elevated to an international and now he's back here with us," Ryan said.

"That's disappointing.

"I'd like to see him back in there and the conversations we had with England were that if they were going to pick him they had to stick with him and they haven't."

Whether the 20-year-old centre will be recalled for the final Test against South Africa remains to be seen, but his presence was crucial as Gloucester stayed unbeaten in the league.

Seven wins and a draw from eight matches is testament to the depth in Ryan's squad, yet he is refusing to get carried away with his side's title plight.

"We're still building," he insisted.

"We're not reliant on any one group of 15 players each week and it pleases me to see how we've learned from our mistakes and how we've grown as a side."

Defeat knocks third-placed Wasps four points behind the Kingsholm outfit, leaving director of rugby Ian McGeechan to rue individual errors.

"We played a lot of good rugby but we just had a careless 15 minutes after half-time," said McGeechan.

"We started and finished with a try and a penalty and with some very positive rugby. That should be our trademark.

"But we didn't play with the urgency we showed at the start and in the last 10 minutes. We gave a lot of soft points away."