Only Evans to coach Wales was a Wallaby

AT the last count, as conducted by people who know about these things, there were almost 75,000 Evanses living in Wales. How strange, therefore, that the one Evans to have run the national rugby team came from the other side of the world.

Alec Evans, who resides somewhere between Steve Waugh and Crocodile Dundee on the list of fair dinkum Aussie hardnuts, answered the sort of World Cup emergency which only used to happen in Wales.

The Queenslander had gone there in the early 90s to run Cardiff. After three rewarding years at the Arms Park, he was about to head off for pastures new when Alan Davies’ departed as Wales coach within weeks of the 1995 tournament in South Africa.

Evans went to work in his trademark tartan beanie, made the best of a bad job and resumed his career back home. The other night the Australian Rugby Union recognised a lifetime of achievement by awarding him life membership, an accolade granted to only seven others in Wallaby history.

Sixty years ago, Evans had the misfortune to be picked for an Australian tour of New Zealand without actually becoming a Wallaby. Illness forced him to miss the entire trip.

Three years later, he dislocated a shoulder playing for Queensland against the Springboks. The story goes that Evans left the field only long enough for an injection to ease the pain sufficiently for him to return.

That, and a great deal more, moved one of Australia’s finest sportswriters, the late Greg Growden, to describe Alec as ‘one of the real unsung heroes.’ While others bathed in the glory showered upon the 1984 Wallabies, Evans played a major role on that Grand Slam tour as assistant to Alan Jones.

A renowned scrum doctor, the ‘Ozzie Grizzly’ served as the right hand man to three other Wallaby coaches: Greg Smith, Rod Macqueen and John Connolly. Alec Evans is still going strong at 82.