One-time Gloucester back row Gareth Evans is back in rugby and he’s loving it.

The 33-year-old took over as head coach at Tewkesbury at the start of the season and has made a good early impression at the Counties 3 Gloucestershire North club.

Evans knows his rugby, of course. He played alongside some great players, featured in the biggest competitions and was signed by some of the best clubs around.

The 6ft 3in ball-playing back row enjoyed eight years with Gloucester before spending two seasons with Ospreys and then moving on to Leicester for a brief period.

It is his time at Gloucester for which he will best be remembered and, in particular, that May night in 2015 when he was part of the team that won the European Challenge Cup with a 19-13 win over Edinburgh.

And that was some Gloucester team, a team that included the likes of Jonny May, James Hook, Richard Hibbard, John Afoa, Billy Twelvetrees and Greig Laidlaw.

And Evans certainly played his part in that victory at Twickenham Stoop in a back row that included two other up-and-coming 20-somethings in Ross Moriarty and Matt Kvesic.

Rugby has been a huge part of Evans’ life for as long as he can remember.

“The story goes that my dad took me to Wootton Bassett Rugby Club a week before my fourth birthday,” recalled Evans, who was born in Swindon.

“I’d already been playing rugby in the garden – scoring tries, making tackles. The first thing I did at Wootton Bassett was tackle somebody and I was told it was only touch rugby, I was quite disappointed!”

Evans’ dad Glyn was unable to play much rugby because of a problem with his knees, but he was well known at the club which was only 400 yards from where they lived.

“He started coaching me from under-9s,” Evans said. “I stayed there until the under-13s when I went down to Bath to play for their youth team.

“My dad moved me so that I could play a higher standard. I think he was probably hoping to catch the eye of the academy, although I wasn’t thinking beyond that afternoon!”

Dad was right, though, because the young Evans was certainly starting to make a serious impact.

“I was 6ft 3in at 13 or 14,” he said. “I was 95 kilos and was the second or third fastest in the county at 200 metres. Rugby was very, very easy back then!”

And in those days he wasn’t a forward.

“I started off as a fly-half, then I moved to outside centre,” he said. “It wasn’t until the under-15s when I hit 100 kilos that they moved me into the forwards.

“They sent me into the back row slightly against my wishes, I’ve always preferred to be in the wider channels. I like running into space, running into brick walls wasn’t for me!”

Because of his size Evans reckons he was at his peak in the under-14s and under-15s, but although the others were starting to catch up with him there was no shortage of rugby offers as he approached 16.

He’d been playing for Wales Schoolboys and had offers to join the academies at both Dragons and Bath, but instead opted for Hartpury College and once there he immediately became part of Gloucester’s academy.

And he has absolutely no regrets because by 2011 he was given his first runout in Gloucester’s first team.

“It was pre-season, quite a few players were away with the World Cup,” he explained. “I’d played a few games for Hartpury in National League 3, that was my first taste of adult rugby, but this was at Kingsholm.”

It was James Simpson-Daniel’s testimonial game against Russia, and Evans made an unbelievable start because he scored in the opening minutes of the game.

“It was off the back of the scrum, we were driving forward and their scrum was collapsing, I just picked up the ball and dived over,” he said. “There’s a photo of Nick Wood giving me what looks like a ‘well done’ pat on the head but he’s actually telling me off.

“He told me that we would have been awarded a penalty try and that I shouldn’t do that again, he said the front row should have got the try!”

By the start of the 2013/14 season Evans had begun to establish himself under director of rugby Nigel Davies and after finishing second in the Premiership in the previous campaign they were now competing in the Heineken Cup, the elite European competition in club rugby.

Munster and Perpignan were in Gloucester’s pool and Evans said: “Playing against Munster was massive, they had so many great players. Thomond Park was an unbelievable place to play rugby, the crowd was so loud you couldn’t hear a thing, it made every hair on your body stand on end.”

Perpignan’s side included Welsh fly-half James Hook, a player who Evans had looked up to for many years.

“My dad was Welsh and I’d been brought up as a Wales-supporting rugby fan,” said Evans. “Hook was a superstar, he got the ball from kick-off and hit it like a torpedo, it went a thousand miles!”

Hook was to link up with Evans at Gloucester less than a year later along with Hibbard, Afoa and Laidlaw, and Evans continued: “They were some of the best players in the world and I was going to be playing with them.

“I remember thinking, ‘Oh my goodness, they’ve done everything in the game.

“I couldn’t believe it, I was still a massive rugby fan.”

Unfortunately for Evans he was not able to play alongside them straight away because he tore his ACL in the April, which ruled him out for six months.

“Just when I’d started to build momentum I tended to get an injury,” said Evans, who played 85 times for Gloucester.

There was also plenty of competition for the no 8 shirt from Ben Morgan and Sione Kalamafoni, although Evans added: “It was often more a question of who could stay fit.”

Morgan and Kalamafoni were both big and strong – “Kalamafoni was a giant of a man,” said Evans – and they were certainly bigger than Evans.

“I was 110 kilos but I was considered 10 kilos too light,” he admitted. “Everyone was 120 kilos-plus, I was considered very small.

“Rugby was played by bigger people back then, guys are a bit lighter now in favour of speed, especially in the back row.”

Fortunately Evans was able to play across the back row, but with Morgan injured it was at no 8 that Evans played that never-to-be-forgotten European cup final against Edinburgh.

“It’s 10 years ago next year, that’s nuts,” he said. “It was pretty special. There were some serious players in that team, I was very proud to be part of it and to be part of the history of the club.”

So what is his abiding memory of that final?

“We were six points ahead and were awarded a penalty from quite a long way out in the final minute of the game,” he said. “Greig Laidlaw was taking it and he said to me, ‘Gaz, when I kick it, you chase it as if your life depends on it’.

“He was way ahead of me. He was worried the ball would hit the posts, bounce back into play and they could break away and score.”

Happily, that didn’t happen, of course, and Evans, who lives in Sandhurst with his wife Antonia and daughter Poppy, helped to give Gloucester’s fans a night they will always remember.

And Evans, who these days plays cricket for Kingsholm 2nds, has nothing but good things to say about the Gloucester faithful.

“Before I went to Hartpury I didn’t really know anything about club rugby,” he admitted. “I’d watch the 6 Nations and internationals, but that was it.

“Seeing what club rugby meant to Gloucester’s fans was eye-opening.

“I think Gloucester have some of the best fans in the country and I’m very proud to say that I’ve never had a bad experience with a Gloucester fan, even to this day, never.”

One of the reasons is that he gave his all for the cherry and white shirt, of course, although some supporters may be surprised that he thinks he could have achieved even more during his rugby career.

It was a career that included a Premiership 7s title with Gloucester in 2013 but he said: “I can’t help feel I took it for granted, I didn’t make the most of it.

“I did it because I enjoyed it as a kid. I had an incredible 10 years getting paid to do something I would have done for free.

“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunities I was given, it was brilliant, there were highlights all over the place.

“I’ve got a few scars too, it’s a hard game, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

After leaving Gloucester in 2019, he spent two Covid-disrupted years with Ospreys where he played 16 games, including games against Leinster, Munster and Ulster, before his career was ended with Leicester because of concussion.

“I’d been there four months and they were about to extend my contract until the end of the season,” Evans said. “In the end it was the doctor at Leicester who made the decision.

“He said I needed to think how much trauma my brain has suffered.”

It was clearly a difficult time for Evans – he’d only just turned 30 and should still have been in his peak rugby years.

He stayed away from the game for a couple of years and trained to be a financial adviser, but once rugby is in your blood, it’s in your blood.

So when he saw Tewkesbury were looking for a head coach he jumped at the opportunity and, so far, he’s not looked back.

“I grew up in local rugby with Wootton Bassett and it’s great to be back in local rugby,” he said. “They are a great bunch of guys at Tewkesbury, they are a lovely club, there’s a lovely atmosphere.”

It always helps when you’re winning a lot more than you’re losing, of course, but Evans is eager to give something back to rugby.

“Rugby is a very simple game,” he said. “A 2v1 is a 2v1 at all levels of the game, it’s the decision-making, knowing what is the right thing to do in a given situation.

“And if Plan A isn’t working, try something else.”

It’s fair to say that Plan A has been working for much of Tewkesbury’s campaign, with Evans adding: “The squad want to play rugby the way I want to play rugby.

“They like to throw the ball about and play good rugby, but you’ve still got to have a foundation.

“You’ve got to have a structure to play rugby, it’s just adding those nuances.”

Evans admits that he’s still finding his feet but there’s one thing he won’t compromise on.

“I try to keep it fun,” he said. “I played rugby because it was fun, even when I was getting paid.

“Teams play better when they’re having fun. My focus is ball in hand, skills and running rugby.”