The Llandovery coach, who is also director of rugby at Coleg Sir Gar, signed up five players to his Drovers squad for next season and also attracted 10 newcomers to his Sir Gar academy. The only question now is when will they be able to play?
Sir Gar has been one of Welsh rugby’s greatest nurseries over the past decade, bringing through players such as Josh Adams, Scott Williams, Aled Davies, Samson Lee, Luke Hamilton and Ryan Elias. As well as those international headliners, there are also many more players currently playing as professional and semi-professional players.
“At this stage we really don’t know what shape to expect for next season from a playing perspective. At College it might be we don’t get the chance to train as a group or to play for the rest of the year,” said Evans.
“That would be difficult for the boys who have committed themselves to our rugby programme this year. It looked as though we were going to have the foundations for a very good side, but now we just have to hope we get the chance to work with the players and that they get a chance to play.”
Having seen Sir Gar fail to reach the final of the Welsh Schools & Colleges League for the first time in their history last season, Evans is hell-bent on trying to lead them back to the top. It is a similar story with the Drovers.
They ended up in fourth place in the table when the season was curtailed by COVID-19 and had their sights firmly set on going higher.
“We’d won five and drawn another of our seven games this year in the Premiership and were looking forward to a good run into the end of the season,” explained Evans.
“We lost three games in the opening couple of months at Ebbw Vale and Merthyr and at home to Newport. We had to recover from that and we felt we were coming into some reasonable form.
“The Cup quarter-final defeat to Cardiff was another bow, but they were easily the best team in the league last season. I have no doubts they would have gone on to win the title had the season been allowed to finish.
“Now we have to get up to that level. We’ve lost out captain, Richard Brooks, and outside half Jack Maynard, but we’re pleased to be getting James Garland back from Aberavon to fill in at No 10 and help with the coaching of the backs.
“Other than that there aren’t too many changes to our squad. It is a case of getting more out of what we’ve already got.”
Maynard is joining former club Cardiff, while Garland will be hoping to add to the 520 points he has already notched for the Drovers during a previous spell at Church Bank between 2011-15.
