Evans vows to cause Gloucester some pain in Spain in Challenge Cup showpiece
Cardiff Blues’ exciting young fly-half will take the game to his opponents, he tells Charlie Morgan
Jarrod Evans was last on Spanish soil 11 months ago for his cousin Greg’s stag-do in Magaluf. He travels to Bilbao this week in a different capacity, with Cardiff Blues for their Challenge Cup final against Gloucester on Friday. It would be slightly disingenuous to say that this trip will be for business rather than pleasure, though.
Evans is a stocky, exciting fly-half with an explosive step. His performances over a breakthrough season have propelled him into contention for Wales’ summer Tests against South Africa and Argentina. They have also exuded enjoyment. Rarely has a smile left the 21-year-old’s face and he seems determined not to let the occasion stifle him.
“I wouldn’t be comfortable in a stick-it-up-your-jumper team,” admits Evans. “I like moving the point of contact, playing with width and boys coming onto the ball.
“There’s no point feeling under pressure during a game. Things come off, other things don’t. You learn from the things that don’t. We’re all on the same page in how we want to play.”
Blues lost four of five fixtures in September, the same month in which Waspsbound head coach Danny Wilson confirmed he would be leaving at the end of the season. Their resurgence has been gutsy, though. Alongside their European exploits, 11 Pro14 victories have secured qualification for the 2018-19 Champions Cup.
A product of the Blues’ academy, Evans personifies a core of homegrown players, who have thrived around older heads, such as prop Gethin Jenkins.
He has also faced obstacles. Last season featured a gruesome setback during an Anglo-Welsh Cup tie against Exeter. “I went low to tackle one of their centres and his knee cracked me,” Evans says, running a finger from his bottom lip under his chin. “I split my jaw straight down the middle. It was a nasty one. I was in Exeter Hospital for a few nights and on soup and milkshake for the next two or three weeks… I used to like milkshake, now I’m sick of it.”
Those closest to Evans do not doubt his toughness. He represented Pontypridd in the Welsh Premiership at 17. Despite a deserved reputation as an entertaining attacker, he is no reckless gunslinger. Last month, his maturity at Murrayfield guided Cardiff past Edinburgh in the Challenge Cup quarter-final. “I’ve learned a lot this year about game management and how momentum in sport changes,” he says. “Edinburgh are a tough team to beat, but we felt that their defence could be exposed by kicks.”
Blues will fly to Spain in strong form. Scavenging back-rowers Josh Navidi and Ellis Jenkins are firing, and in Evans’s words, the backline is full of “boys who can beat people”.
Evans has the responsibility of tying it all together as the club strive for a first major trophy since 2010.
“We played Gloucester last year [in the quarter-final] and had a bit of a margin on them, but they clawed their way back and won. We’ll want a bit of payback for that, but there will be no pressure on us.”