Prop Allan tries best to catch Townsend’s eye

ALEX Allan’s membership of the front-row union may be in serious jeopardy, but the prop won’t have done his chances of a Glasgow starting spot any harm as they enter a crucial phase of the season.

Props like to pretend their trundles from one yard out were actually 25-yard breaks with a sidestep and searing pace – in Allan’s case the fantasy came true, as his second-half try won Glasgow’s game against Newport Gwent Dragons in the Guinness PRO12 on Friday, after a sticky couple of weeks.

They will be expected to continue that progress away to Zebre on Saturday – even though it is true the Italians will be no pushovers at home as Connacht found out – with a tough European group containing Leicester, Racing 92 and Munster coming up.

Allan pushed his case as he rolled back the years to his schoolboy centre days, but Glasgow will also need their top internationals to step up and they were key players in the 26-17 victory. “It was a good win, especially down there where the crowd are really vocal, and it was good to get back on track after a hard couple of weeks,” Allan said.

“It’s always good to get over for a try, it’s one I’ll look back on and remember. I may need to do a few pick-and-goes to get back into the front-row union, but it’s all good fun.

“I used to play a bit at 12 in my school days. We have a big game against Zebre next week, there is a lot to build on, we have a lot of leaders in the team and they stayed calm when we went behind.

“We have a wide range of ages, Corey [former All Black hooker Corey Flynn] keeps the average age to a normal limit by himself, but it is good to see a few of the younger players getting a chance.”

Gregor Townsend was also relieved by the win over Dragons, with tougher challenges in mind. “I’m delighted for the players who put a lot of effort in over the last two weeks without reward,” the head coach said. “We had to dig deep with players who have not played much for us or not at all, or players who have not played for a number of weeks.

“With the possession and territory of the first half we would have liked one or two more tries, and we have to work on our tackling after a penalty for a high tackle and yellow card for a no-arms tackle.”

In was not such a good night for Edinburgh who were well beaten 28-15 by Connacht at the Sportsground. Stand-off Jason Tovey said his teammates were disappointed not to be able to put in a big performance to welcome Duncan Hodge into his new role after Alan Solomons’ departure, but the acting head coach will be pleased by aspects of his side’s display.

Tries in each half from Grant Gilchrist and Mike Allen – his form is a real bright spot – gave Edinburgh hope of claiming a losing bonus point, but in the end the hosts pulled clear to wrap up a bonus-point win.

Next weekend Treviso will visit Murrayfield, and the Hodge era should pick up its first victory but for Tovey, a win in Galway would have been a great tonic.

“It was quite disappointing. Little errors were costing us,” Tovey said. “The turning point was when they had a chance to score they took their tries and we just made little errors in their 22.” But we trained hard this week and I’m sure it will be exactly the same next week,”

In the second Edinburgh did put the pressure on the home side, but instead of kicking a couple of penalties when his side were 13 points behind, Tovey was urged to push the ball into the corner in search of tries.

One did eventually come nine minutes from time when Glenn Bryce fired the ball through his legs for Allen to score in the corner, and those unclaimed points then proved crucial.

Under Solomons, Edinburgh became known as a bruising outfit that played safety-first rugby. On first viewing, the reins were loosened at the Sportsground, but there is still much to do according to Tovey.

“The way we played, we threw it around a bit more,” he went on. “We scored two good tries. We have to hope we can take that into next week’s game.

“We just have to put our own stamp on it and start moving the ball around. It was a tough game as it always here. You could look at their start to the season, but it means nothing they just had a few blips. But I enjoyed it and I am happy to be back.”