My Life in Rugby: Ieuan Evans – former Llanelli, Bath, Wales and Lions wing

Of all the tries I scored for club and country the one that won the 3rd Test for the Lions against Australia in 1989 is clearly the most talked about – and it was from only six inches out. I have to say, though, that I remember all my tries: from schoolboy level to internationals. I just loved scoring; it was my job.
David Campese wasn’t the only one caught on the hop in Sydney that day, I also managed to catch a rabbit that had sneaked out onto the field and decided to start grazing by my feet. It probably ended up on the barbeque that night! The ’89 tour was special on lots of levels. There were great characters in the squad like Mike Teague and Dean Richards, Finlay Calder was the finest captain I played under and a real inspiration, and we were cheered on by hordes of supporters from back home. It was a time of economic decline and large scale unemployment and many Welsh fans used their redundancy money to fund the trip. It meant that much to them.
I’d already been on the winning side against Australia twice by then – for Llanelli in 1984, within a couple of months of making my club debut, and with Wales at the inaugural Rugby World Cup when we claimed the bronze medal at the Wallabies‘ expense.
Post-Lions, I enjoyed one more success against Australia – in 1992, at a sold-out Stradey Park. I scored early on after taking an inside pass off Colin Stephens. It was a move we’d copied from Mark Ella and it worked a treat as I was able to cross under the posts without a hand barely laid on me.
All told, I played 73 times for Wales, 28 as captain. Alan Davies decided to hand me the captaincy even though I’d had no previous experience of the job at senior level. It was very much a case of being thrown in at the deep end but it was a role I cherished and grew to enjoy. When you lead your country out in an international you take on board the hopes and aspirations of a nation.
The surge of adrenaline and emotion that captaining and playing for your country is something you cannot replicate and I’m grateful to have experienced it on so many occasions.
I was also blessed to play for two of the greatest club sides in the world in Llanelli and Bath. I made my Scarlets debut alongside one of the icons of Welsh rugby, Ray Gravell. It was such an honour to be in a side packed with so much quality and in the early days I used to pull out all the stops to make every training session even though I was studying Geography at Salford University. The cross-country journey could vary from four-and-a-half hours to a record 13 hours depending on how lucky I was with hitching lifts!
I scored 191 tries in 231 appearances for the club before making the hard decision to leave. Scarlets were really struggling financially at the time and needed the money so I was happy to help in any way I could. I only wanted to go to a club where rugby was at the heart and soul of the community so Bath was the perfect fit.
My time at The Rec was racked with injuries but I still managed to pick up a European Cup winner’s medal. Nobody gave us a prayer in the final. Brive were one of the best teams in Europe back then and we were playing them on French soil, but somehow we pulled it off against all the odds.
By the time we’d got changed the post-match banquet had been packed away by our disgruntled hosts, so we were forced to head off into centre of Bordeaux in search of the nearest McDonalds as that was the only place that could fit 40 players and staff in. It was hardly dining out in style but we didn’t care; we were European champions.