Ieuan Evans

Ieuan Evans

Ieuan Evans
Full name	Ieuan Cennydd Evans
Date of birth	(1964-03-21) 21 March 1964
Place of birth	Pontardulais, Wales
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Weight	13 st 5 lb (85 kg)
School	Queen Elizabeth Grammar
University	Salford University
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position	Wing
Amateur clubs
Years	Club / team
	Carmarthen Quins RFC Llanelli RFC Bath Barbarian F.C.
National team(s)
Years	Club / team	Caps	(points)
1987–1998 1989–1997	Wales British and Irish Lions	72 7	(157) (5)

Ieuan Cennydd Evans MBE (born 21 March 1964) is a former rugby union player who played on the wing for Wales and the British and Irish Lions. He is the 3rd highest try scorer for Wales behind Shane Williams and Gareth Thomas and joint 19th in the world on the all-time Test try scoring list. Evans held the record for the most Wales caps as captain with 28, a record only recently overtaken by Ryan Jones in 2012.

Career

Club Level

Evans was born in Pontardulais, Wales, and started playing rugby at the age of 10 as a pupil at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Carmarthen before captaining the team at the newly renamed Queen Elizabeth Maridunum School. When he was 17, Evans started playing for Carmarthen Quins RFC youth side before joining Llanelli two years later, initially as a student at Salford University. He went on to win five of seven cup finals for the club. In 1997 he left Llanelli for Bath where he was part of the team which won the Heineken Cup in 1998.

International Level

While at Llanelli, Evans gained a call-up to the Welsh National Side and made his first international appearance as a right-wing for Wales against France in Paris in 1987. He went on to win 72 caps for Wales, 28 of which as a captain, and scored 33 tries – at that time a record for Wales – and was dubbed "Merlin" by TV commentator Bill McLaren. In March 1994, he captained Wales when the team won the Five Nations Championship.

Evans went on three tours with the British and Irish Lions, to Australia in 1989, New Zealand in 1993 and South Africa in 1997. Amongst his most memorable moments were scoring the decisive series-winning try in the 3rd Lions Test against Australia in 1989 and his four tries against the All Blacks in 1993, which made him the Lion's top try scorer. He made his final international appearance against Italy in 1998.

Personal life

Evans was awarded the MBE for services to rugby in 1996, and announced his retirement from the game in 1999 to run his own PR marketing company. In 2007 he was inducted into the International Rugby Hall of Fame. In 2014 he was introduced to the IRB Hall of Fame.

After retiring from professional rugby, Evans has been a regular broadcaster, presenter and rugby pundit. He has worked for the BBC, ITV and currently for Sky Sports for over a decade. He has held a non-executive and ambassadorial positions for a number of companies and has been a board member of the Welsh Tourist Board, VisitBritain, 2010 Ryder Cup and Nominet Wales Advisory Group.

He is also involved in a number of charities. He contributed to a charity match in 2010, managing an international XV against England XV, raising funds for Help for Heroes. He has been actively involved in supporting Velindre Cancer Centre Wales. In 2010, he took part in the 'Captains Climb' which saw 15 past captains of the Welsh Rugby team climb Mount Kilimanjaro, raising thousands of pounds toward the work of the charity. Evans is also involved in Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, St John's Ambulance, Prostate Cymru, Sparks and is a Trustee and a Patron for Keep Wales Tidy.

External links

• Wales profile
• ESPN Profile