Rob Evans' shock axe comes amid 'perfect storm' as brutal reality leaves players worried

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. Wise-cracking 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. You can read more about that episode and his concussion struggles here.