Prop Evans among nine heading out of Scarlets

ROB Evans – a Six Nations Grand Slam winner with Wales barely three years ago – is among nine players who are leaving the Scarlets.

Former captain Steff Hughes is among the group, along with Wales international Tyler Morgan.

Angus O’brien, James Davies, Liam Williams, Marc Jones, Tom Phillips and Tom Lewis complete the list.

Head coach Dwayne Peel said: “I’d like to thank all these players for everything they have given to the Scarlets jersey. Boys like Rob, Steff, Cubby and Liam have played more than a century of games for the club and they will be fondly remembered by everyone here, staff, team-mates and supporters.

“They can be extremely proud of what they have achieved and I am sure they will have great memories of representing the Scarlets over the years.

“Every season players move on and we always respect the decisions that are made. With a reduced playing budget, we have had to cut our squad for next season and that has meant we have had some difficult decisions to make.

“The players have continued to give their full commitment, as they have always done, and I’m sure our supporters will give them the reception they all deserve at our final game against the Stormers on Saturday. I wish them all well for what comes next.”

Evans’s exit is the one that will likely attract most interest.

In 2019, the loosehead prop with the flypaper hands started four out of five of Wales’s Six Nations games as the side coached by Warren Gatland reeled off their clean sweep. The previous year Evans had been playing well enough to be included on a list of the Rugby World magazine’s top 100 players on the planet.

It started to go wrong just months after Gatland’s final Grand Slam with the New Zealander omitting Evans from Wales’s World Cup squad on the grounds of durability, with the Haverfordwest-born player having had shoulder, neck and back issues.

He appeared to have overcome those problems in 2020 when the then Scarlets coach Glenn Delaney reckoned he had never seen him looking in better shape, but it’s been a fight for Evans to re-establish himself as firstchoice at his region since, not helped by further time on the sidelines.

This term, he has started just five games amid the emergence of young props Steffan Thomas and Kemsley Mathias.