an extremely astute columnist for the Guardian<\/a> \u2013 but English rugby more generally. He has some fascinating and forthright views, not least regarding the national team\u2019s prospects at next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019d definitely put them up there as a team who can go and cause some trouble,\u201d says Evans. \u201cThere are five teams at the top of the world at the moment who, on their day, can all beat each other and go on and win the World Cup. I\u2019d definitely have England in that group. You\u2019ve got so many quality players. Most of the games in the Prem are fantastic and there\u2019s some unbelievable young English talent coming through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick Evans attempts to go past Wasps\u2019 Jeremy Staunton during his first season at Harlequins. Photograph: Nigel French\/Empics\/PA\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Encouraging news, but how should they try to play? Evans has spent years mentoring Marcus Smith who, for various reasons, is still vainly attempting to nail down the England starting 10 jersey. Evans knows how that feels, having spent much of his Test career playing second fiddle to the great Dan Carter, but is unsure whether Smith\u2019s skill set is ever destined to fit England\u2019s traditional template. \u201cIn terms of Marcus \u2013 and you\u2019d probably say the same about Danny Cipriani and players in that mould \u2013 Jonny Wilkinson set the stall out as to what an English 10 should be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s kind of the identity \u2026 unbelievable at game management, that George Ford\/Owen Farrell type of player. When you put a maverick, for want of a better word, into that system and it\u2019s not going quite right it\u2019ll default back to that English identity. I think he\u2019s always going to be fighting that. Marcus was understandably frustrated [not to start] \u2026 he is desperate to play international footy and he\u2019s working on those aspects of the game that he wants to improve. But he\u2019s always going to have an instinctive way of playing. If that doesn\u2019t align to the identity of the team you want to play with, there\u2019s always going to be a few issues around that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unless \u2013 and Evans speaks as someone who coached England\u2019s backs during the 2023 Six Nations \u2013 some kind of middle ground can be located. \u201cYou could probably learn from South Africa a little bit. They have a really clear DNA in terms of how they want to play the game. A physical set piece, a kicking style \u2026 but what they\u2019ve done is adapted and evolved.\u201d Could England do likewise? \u201cThere is an English DNA and I\u2019ve no problem with that. But how do we evolve and fit in a player like Marcus or Henry Arundell, who has the ability to play what they see? Everyone has their opinions \u2013 ultimately it comes down to the guys in charge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nick Evans in his role as England attack coach keeps an eye on Marcus Smith during a January 2023 training session at Pennyhill Park. Photograph: Matt Impey\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
Evans\u2019s time up north has also taught him something else: that New Zealand are no longer the global game\u2019s undisputed tactical gurus. \u201cWe always used to think that innovation came from New Zealand. Mate, I think that\u2019s gone. I think innovation now is coming from the French, the Irish \u2026 up here people are trying to find different ways of playing the game. I think it\u2019s almost a case of New Zealand having to catch up. Losing South Africa from Super Rugby was big for them \u2026 playing teams with different styles and game plans. Up here, it\u2019s a different challenge every week. It keeps you on your toes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is why wherever he goes next \u2013 several high-profile sides are courting him \u2013 he will do so with genuine sweet sorrow. \u201cBeing the competitive person I am, you always think: \u2018Aw, we could have done more.\u2019 Particularly with that golden generation we had between 2011 and 2015. But when I look back I\u2019m really proud to be the last of that generation who truly lived and breathed what Quins\u2019 identity was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Somewhere along the way, sadly, the time-honoured True mantra that once defined Quins \u2013 \u201cTempo, Ruthless, Unpredictable, Enjoyment\u201d \u2013 has been mislaid. \u201cIf we\u2019re being honest, we have been consistently inconsistent around our identity. Tempo is not always allegro \u2026 Collin Osborne [the former Quins coach] used to say that. You also need control. We\u2019ve had some fantastic and unbelievable times, but we\u2019ve had times when we\u2019ve had people who maybe haven\u2019t understood what that was about.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the most part, nevertheless, he will walk away a thankful man, endlessly grateful for the kindness and support shown to himself, his wife, Sally, and their three children. Their youngest boy, Billy, has special educational needs and Evans is adamant that Sally deserves significantly more praise than he does. \u201cFor 18 years, to be brutally honest, it\u2019s been all about me as a player and a coach. My wife is superhuman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harlequins\u2019 Nick Evans wheels away in celebration after scoring a drop goal against Stade Fran\u00e7ais in December 2008. Photograph: David Field\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n
He will also endlessly cherish the wet Friday night in 2008 when, after 29 phases, he dropped a famously low-flying goal to beat Stade Fran\u00e7ais at the Stoop. \u201cThat will be my forever memory of Quins. I can picture it now. After Nigel Owens and the TMO [television match official] finally confirmed the ball had gone over, the energy and noise released in that stadium for the next 30 seconds was unlike anything I\u2019ve ever heard. It was just unreal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I sit back and I\u2019m 70 years old, that\u2019s what I\u2019ll be thinking about. For me, it\u2019s not about the rugby or the trophies. It\u2019s the people, the connection and the belonging that you get. I didn\u2019t think that being part of a different team as a coach would be as rewarding as being a player, but it is. As a foreigner, I\u2019ve been unbelievably loved and welcomed into this club. I just want to thank everyone for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 18 years, it is almost time to say farewell to Harlequins\u2019 resident Kiwi. Not every overseas recruit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-429699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}