Brexit’s back on track... now for the Grand Slam
ALEX BYWATER catches up with Rob Evans after an eventful week for Wales’ outstanding loosehead
ROB Evans spent last week talking Brexit and Wales’ win over England with Prime Minister Theresa May at Downing Street. Now the eccentric loosehead admits he and the rest of Warren Gatland’s side have their own problems to solve as they look to stay in the hunt for Grand Slam glory.
As Wales build up to Saturday’s Six Nations visit to Scotland, Evans was in entertaining mood at Wales’ Vale of Glamorgan training base this week.
“Brexit has gone on long enough now so they called in the Special Forces! I went in there and had my five pennies worth... we’re back on track now,” Evans joked.
“Stephen Crabb is Pembrokeshire’s Conservative MP. My dad taught him in school and because I’m one of the current Wales internationals from Pembrokeshire, he invited us up for dinner and it was a good day to be there as there was a St David’s Day ceremony.
“Stephen showed us round Downing Street, and then we had a bit of a boogie with Theresa. I didn’t need to mention the England game. Theresa did. She came in and said ‘It’s hard negotiating Brexit, but standing in front of a room full of Welsh people being English after the weekend is just as hard’.
“She was nice. We talked about rugby and she knew quite a lot saying we were on a good streak with 12 in a row.”
While May ponders the United Kingdom’s impending exit from the European Union, Welsh rugby has its own politics to deal with. Gatland’s players are in limbo in the build-up to their trip to Edinburgh with the WRU and their four regions unable to agree on ‘Project Reset’ – the system by which the game in Wales will be run in Wales from the 2020-21 season and beyond.
It is a far from ideal scenario with Evans and his team-mates having to focus on Scotland while also meeting
“It’s great to have a captain like Alun Wyn. If he sees a glint of complacency he’ll snap it out”
with WRU bosses to try and get answers as to what will happen in the future.
“It’s all up in the air at the moment. That’s the biggest thing with it all – there is no clarity and as players we don’t know what is happening,” said Evans, who is out of contract with the Scarlets at the end of the season. “It’s tough for us, but also for the boys back at the regions because when we’re with Wales we have got a bigger focus.
“It’s not nice, it’s a bit of a mess and I hope it gets sorted soon.”
Evans and the rest of the Wales squad are the only unbeaten team left in the Six Nations and are on course for their first clean sweep since 2012.
Saturday’s trip to Murrayfield and a home meeting with Ireland on the final weekend are their two remaining obstacles. Gatland’s men are also now statistically the best team in Welsh rugby history after sealing a recordbreaking 12th straight win with victory over England in round three.
Still, Wales’ last visit to Scotland is keeping them grounded. In 2017 they were blown away in the second half in Edinburgh to be beaten 29-13.
“We had a lot of scrumming calls go against us that day with (referee) John Lacey, but it was a tough day. We didn’t come out the blocks and if we’re honest Scotland embarrassed us a bit,” Evans said. “We had our pants pulled down, but we’re looking forward to Scotland again. It’s going be an incredibly tough game for us. We know what they’re like at home. They feed off the atmosphere just as we do in Cardiff.
“Their set-piece has been going pretty well and they’ve got some quality backs in there. I don’t know if Finn Russell will be fit, but they’ve got some exciting talent.
“It’s great for us to have a captain like Alun-Wyn Jones. If he sees any glint of complacency he’ll just snap it out straight away. He’s a great leader and another big thing about this group is everyone is pretty grounded. We realise where we are at the moment. I know we’ve had three wins, but Scotland embarrassed us last time by quite a hefty scoreline. We’re aware of how tough a challenge it’s going to be.”