Evans Above!

THE EXCLUSION of women from post-match functions may be anachronistic but Welsh captain Ieuan Evans is willing to provide an explanation. “It’s difficult sometimes,” he ventures, “because there’s so much preparation, so much emphasis, and so much emotion involved with the game that somehow you’ve got to have an escape valve and let yourself relax. It can be difficult to do that with, among other things, get-togethers beforehand, the game itself and formal dinners. Everything’s formalised and sometimes you can get to that stage where some players start getting a bit jumpy and fidgety with it, and you can understand why.

“I can’t compare it with the Sixties and Seventies, because I wasn’t there, but the social aspect of rugby is long gone,” he continues. “It’s getting increasingly difficult to have a social life because of the dedication required to play the game. Basically we train five nights a week, play club or inter-national games at the weekend, and the one time we do have to relax is after an international when you can have a few glasses of beer.”

For the thirty-year-old Leasing Executive, however, the inherent contradictions in the structure and management of the sport are clear. “It’s still supposed to be an amateur sport with an amateur ethos, but the ethos is just in relation to being paid for the game, or not, as the case may be. There should be more to amateurism than that. The amateur ethos should mean a multitude of things, the pressures involved, the life you have.”

OLD MEN IN BLAZERS

It is a further anomaly that if a member of the current Irish squad expressed such views he would probably be banished, much as Simon Geoghegan was temporarily suspended last year for expressing forthright views on the nature and structures within the Irish game. It is in the light of such criticism that the demands made by old men in blazers upon young men intent on enjoying a sport are often seen as exploitative. The Max Romeo song ‘Old Men Make War’ springs to mind and could be used as a back-drop to major games as the ‘G and T’ set recline in the stands.

“With the amount of fixtures we’ve got at the moment it’s becoming increasingly difficult for players to rest, and players are being asked to make hard decisions,” explains Evans. “Look at Jeremy Guscott (England). He’s now got a long-term groin injury. That’s basically from the amount of games and training sessions he’s had to do, without having time to rest it. Now that’s become a serious groin injury rather than just a niggling one. Better management of players’ time is needed, some co-ordination, better structure of the game as a whole. Sooner rather than later.”

Whether anything can, or will, be done in the short-term is a moot point, but for Ireland, Scotland, and Wales themselves, their results on the pitch in recent years seem to indicate an ability to snatch only the odd victory from larger countries like England and France. The days of consistent runs of success could well be over.

“It’s going to be more difficult than it was back in earlier days,” Evans concedes, “because so many more countries play the game and it is now among the top sports in so many countries, so more people are coming into it at a playing level. The next World Cup in 1995 will increase the popularity even more. Maybe some of the older countries suffer accordingly, but, if your own structure within the game is good enough, then the national team can survive. I’m sure the game will survive in Wales. It is our national sport and we have several hundred thousand playing it and I’m sure with that depth of personnel the talent will be there.”

TOPSY TURVY FORTUNES

The decline in the supply of players from the old Welsh heartlands and mining villages has been just one factor in the topsy-turvy fortunes of the national team since the Eighties. “I think the sheer physical presence that players had back in the Sixties and Seventies had to do with the physical nature of their work,” says Evans, “but that has largely gone with the way employment structures have changed in South Wales. Mining and heavy engineering have largely gone and been replaced by service and scientific work. As a result, the players need the kind sponsorship, if you like, of their employers to find time during the day to physically build-up what the old jobs provided previously.”

The tangible commitment Ieuan Evans himself displays on the field of play is self-evident for those watching his performances, and the sight of the man sprinting past Rory Underwood in a dash for the line in the victory over England last year will live long in the memory.

“You carry the extra responsibility,” he says, “and whatever feeling and emotion you generate hopefully duplicates itself with the players. The desire has to be strong. It was difficult to adjust to the captaincy at first, but I’ve managed to cope with it okay. Preparation is so important these days. A lot of the hard work is done off the pitch and a captain’s responsibility has become somewhat less important as regards tactical and strategic pointers.”

England expects, Wales needs.