Fishing fan Evans out to be a prized catch after Scarlets release
ROB Evans famously likes to while away his down-time fishing for bass in his home county of Pembrokeshire.
“It’s out of the way, on the water, no hassle,” he once said. The perfect setting to reflect on the ebb and flow of a professional rugby player’s life, perhaps.
This week, Evans found himself on the wrong end of such matters when he was released by the Scarlets after 156 appearances over 10 seasons. He is now looking for a position elsewhere in the game.
How did it come to this for a player whose star was so high in the sky not a lifetime long ago?
Rewind to 2018 when Rugby World magazine published their annual list of the top 100 players on the planet. Just three loosehead props were ranked higher than Evans, of whom the respected publication said: “A PRO14 champion, he was arguably Wales’ best player last autumn – he made 12 passes against Australia.”
The west Walian had the hands of a playmaking centre and sufficient power to hold his own in pushing contests against 19st tightheads. Incidentally, he also had the lip to wind up opponents, not exactly a weakness in his position. Wisecracking and full of confidence, he had developed into an all-court front rower who seemed happy with life on and off the field.
But nothing stays the same in any walk of life and particularly in professional rugby. In Evans’ case, a run of injuries affecting his shoulder, back and neck cost him a place in Wales’ 2019 World Cup squad. He has had a couple of ghastly concussion episodes, the first of them so bad the sound of his father scraping gravel off the drive at home 24 hours after the injury happened affected him so much he went upstairs and vomited blood.
A knock to the knee against the Ospreys on New Year’s Day this term also denied him valuable game-time that close on every player needs in the run-up to a contract renewal. With the Scarlets boasting two promising players in Evans’ position in Steffan Thomas and Kemsley Mathias as well as a Lions Test loosehead in Wyn Jones at a time of belt-tightening across the board in Welsh rugby, their once frontline No.1 found starts drying up.
“He’s been caught in a perfect storm,” said a leading player representative. “There are some talented young props at the Scarlets and Rob has had injuries at a time when he’s coming out of contract and there isn’t a huge amount of money in Welsh rugby.
“In England, the salary cap is being cut to £5million per club and in Top 14 there’s a push for more France-qualified players. So there aren’t many great deals for imports in those countries these days. It just isn’t a good time to be coming out of contract.”
He continued: “It’s a brutal world for people generally amid the costof-living crisis, and it’s no different for rugby players. Careers are short and Welsh rugby is tightly run with the salary-banding structure controlling costs.
“I feel for players at this time. A week or two ago, there was talk of a region closing. Can you imagine the impact that has on people who might be affected? If a professional team shut it would mean around 50 players out of work in Wales and staff as well. It’s an awful prospect to contemplate and it isn’t as if there’s conclusive evidence that it would improve matters. So, of course, players are worried.”
The expectation is Evans will resurface somewhere, because he is still only 30 and he’s a seasoned international who has shown he can deliver at the highest level. But his pride would have been dented by the events of recent weeks, even if what has happened to him is an occupational hazard in his line of work.
Another player representative said: “People think playing rugby for a living is fun all the way, but it’s not. The stark reality for any professional rugby player is that the standard contract is for two years. It means that effectively a player potentially finds himself looking for a new job once every 18 months. There’s crippling uncertainty.
“It’s not in line with other walks of life. If you learn your trade or go to college and get other qualifications, you might move around for better opportunities, but in rugby, no matter how good or bad you are, you know within a couple of years you risk being seen as surplus to requirements and a lot of the time because of circumstances you can’t control. In that respect, it’s the same for a British and Irish Lion as it is for an academy player who’s worried about whether he’ll be able to further his career.”
Some will shrug and say it goes with the territory. But the stress is real for almost every player heading out of contract.
“It was horrific,” said a former regional player, who spoke under conditions of anonymity. “When I played I used to hate it when it came to contract renewal.
“Sometimes you’d be coming off a contract and you needed surgery, other times you’d be heading for free-agent status on the back of an amazing run of games.
“There are just so many variables, not all of them under your control. Injuries happen, form comes and goes, a new coach might come in who doesn’t like you, the financial outlook in the game generally might not be very good. It’s a lottery and it can be brutal.
“Rugby players earn decent money for a limited period. They hit their peak and then there’s a spike where wages drop right down. The person who was once great value as a top player becomes vulnerable if his form doesn’t add up and if he’s still on good money or if he’s sidelined at the wrong time.
“I’m not saying that’s completely the picture with Rob. But I saw it happen myself to others and you have a lot of sympathy for the people involved.”
Let’s hope the likes of Evans, Tyler Morgan and Steff Hughes, three of the nine players leaving the Scarlets, find fresh teams quickly. All involved would have known what they were getting into when they took up rugby as a career.
But they have all been through tough times of late. A bit of good fortune dished out by the rugby gods wouldn’t go amiss.