PHOTOS
Rob Evans
Rob Evans, Jonathan Thomas and Geraint John
Rob Evans and Bill Carne

For Rob Evans the 2015/16 rugby season has been something of a fairy tale for the young prop from Spittal, who started out playing with Haverfordwest Junior and Youth teams.

Then he moved to play for Wales in the under 20s World Cup, Carmarthen Quins and the Scarlets and now has eight Welsh senior caps at the age of 24 (he actually found time to chat to us on his birthday!) which is regarded as being extremely young in a position where players usually achieve their peak at 28+.

Started all five Welsh matches

A measure of the huge strides he has made comes from the fact that he was included in Warren Gatland's starting line-up for all five Welsh matches in the Six Nations Championship before he was replaced in the second half by Gethin Jenkins for four of them and by Paul James against England.

In all of them he was taken off by Gatland in the third quarter, having been strong in the scrums and featuring well with his ball-carrying skills - and it could be part of a plan to nurture him carefully because modern rugby is a 23-man game and the back room staff have the technology supplied by GPS tracking systems to know when it is time to make a switch.

"We wear them at every training session and all matches," Rob told us,” and they provide an insight into how hard we work in our daily sessions. We also have our body fat measured regularly to make sure our diet is good, alongside carefully-planned recovery programmes (including the dreaded ice baths) plus physiotherapy that is second to none at our Vale headquarters!”

Still very much a Scarlet too!

Outside of his total commitment to the Welsh team Rob has also played almost 20 times for the Scarlets in the Pro-12 team and cup competitions, and one only has to chat to him for a short while to appreciate his love for the club, and his determination to help them succeed.

"Qualification for the Pro-12 play-offs is vital," he said, "and it would be great for our fantastic supporters to have some silverware to celebrate - but we are still a relatively young side and the aim is long-term success built on a solid platform.

"It's been great to play alongside James 'Cub' Davies, who has a storming season, John Barclay, Morgan Allen, DTH Van Der Merwe and the rest, plus our other current Welsh internationals who have now returned to the fold."

He omits to mention his own performances but it is worth noting that in the recent local derby win at the Liberty Stadium against the Ospreys he received the man of the match plaudits – and we bet it was especially pleasing against old rivals, who had another Haverfordian in Sam Parry coming off the bench!

Hopeful of a trip to ‘The Land of the Long White Cloud’

It has been a long, hard season for any top player and whilst many are looking for a summer rest period, for the Welsh squad there is the little matter of a trek to the Southern Hemisphere to play the mighty All Blacks three times.

Although Rob played down his chances of selection in his usual matter-of-fact way there is no doubt that a lengthy summer break is not something he would relish because he wants to add to his experience by being at Eden Park, the Westpac Stadium and the Forsyth Barr Stadium, plus a midweek 'friendly' against the Waikato Chiefs! It's a pretty full-on challenge for any team but Rob is understandably delighted with recent news of his selection!

We asked Rob for his thoughts on the Six Nations Championship this season and we provide brief summaries below them below:

Ireland 16 Wales 16

"We flew out to Ireland two days before the game, determined to pay no attention to the pre-match hype which had us down as title favourites because we know how tough the Irish are, especially at the Aviva Stadium, on their home soil with their vociferous supporters.

"I shared a room with big second row Brad Davies, who was good company and we trained out in the countryside so that we could relax a little more and on the morning of the match we had a chill out, a few words from Mr Gatland and then a 20-minute run to the stadium, where you could sense straight away that the atmosphere was electric.

"We started slowly and paid the price but fought back to level matters and we should have won but didn't take our chances and paid the price so that we had a real feeling of anti-climax as we flew home after the usual post-match formal dinner and speeches.

Wales 27 Scotland 23

“We knew that the Scots would be no push overs and that is how it turned out so we were glad to tuck our first win under our belts.

“We stayed at headquarters in The Vale and I had the luxury of a room on my own to get my head down after hard training early in the week, followed by our rest day on Wednesday where I just chilled out and enjoyed a few hands of cards with the likes of Dan Biggar, Luke Charteris and others.

“There was a hard session on Thursday and  a very short one to go through a few moves on Friday - and the big day dawned. Travelling into Cardiff is something else, with cars tooting and people waving before the drive down St Mary's Street, which would bring a lump to anyone's throat as you realise the weight of expectation from the thousands of supporters waving to us.

“From the underground car park there's a lift straight up to the changing rooms and then a warm-up on the hallowed turf before a team talk by Sam Warburton. The coaches have an input at half time and after the match there is a formal dinner in the Principality Stadium which is attended by loads of people - and we have to wear our blazers and Welsh ties!”

Wales 19 France 10

“Starting a match in Cardiff at 8pm is difficult for the players - and for the supporters in our county who want to get home on trains!

“For the players it means a change in routine because there is more time to use up before we get down to business! It means having a longer lie-in than usual and time seems to go more slowly before we meet up for the traditional team talk from Warren Gatland and the other main coaches.

“Then we leave about 6pm for the 20-mile trip to the stadium and again I manage to keep the lid on my feelings as I focus on my game, a great trick taught to me by forwards' coach Sean Edwards.

“We were pleased overall with the win because you just never know how the French will play - and the atmosphere was amazing! We had a few beers after the dinner, which didn't finish until after midnight because there were speeches from both presidents and captains.”

England 25 Wales 21

“The big one. What can I say, other than we were all gutted! We stayed at Oatlands Park, near Richmond, followed by a 25-minute bus ride for my debut at Twickenham, which was packed to the rooftops but in my opinion nowhere near as atmospheric as The Principality!

“We made a terrific late come-back but couldn't really have any excuses about the result, and it was difficult to keep our heads up at the dinner upstairs in 'Headquarters' and was the worst moment of my career so far which still sits heavily on my shoulders!

“It was a long bus trip home after that one!”

Wales 67 Italy 14

“We knew we had to put the England defeat behind us and at least we ended our season with an emphatic win.

“We went through exactly the same routine and the crowd was awesome - which summed up all that is great about Welsh support, and being lucky enough to be involved.

“At least we finished on that high note and now hopefully I can continue to build on my cap count because I love playing rugby for Wales!”

He certainly did this at Twickenham recently in Wales’ defeat by England with his first-ever try for Wales and is now getting ready to fly to New Zealand – SO WELL DONE EVS!