The LOU has announced the arrival of New Zealand third line Liam Allen until the end of the season as a medical joker.
Faced with various injuries in the third line (cervical disc injury for Jordan Taufua, rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament of the right knee for Maxime Gouzou), the LOU went in search of a medical joker, and he threw his sights on Liam Allen. The 22-year-old New Zealand third row (1.91m, 105kg) has signed up with the Lyon club until the end of the season and will arrive in March, the time to finalize the administrative formalities. In Lyon, the third line, which will play for the first time in the Northern Hemisphere, will not be out of place, since the workforce already has five New Zealanders, with Liam Coltman, Lima Sopoaga, Fletcher Smith, Josiah Maraku and Toby Arnold. Allen played a Super Rugby match with the Crusaders in May 2021, and has since played with Canterbury in the New Zealand Provincial Championship. The CRFU also played in the last final, lost against Wellington.
LOU can aim for the final phase
Liam Allen’s last game dates back to September 23. He will therefore have to quickly get into the rhythm to tackle the last regular season games of the LOU. If he arrives in March, Liam Allen will be able to play the last six matches of the French championship, where the Lyon club currently occupies a very good third place, with ten wins for seven defeats., fourteen points behind the Toulouse leader. The LOU can dream of the final phase, even if it is only four points ahead of the first virtual non-qualifier, Bordeaux-Bègles. Everything can therefore still change by the end of May, especially if the big clubs like UBB and Montpellier (8th) finally shift up a gear in the second half of the season. Xavier Garbajosa’s men also have a Challenge Cup round of 16 to play (in a dry match) on April 1 against Stade Français Paris.
