Evans – Wales have taken ‘Foot off the gas’


Wales face Italy on Saturday at the Principality Stadium in a wooden spoon decider having lost all four of their games so far.

Italy currently sit fourth in the Six Nations table on six points, level on points but with a marginally better points difference than Ireland, whist Wales are currently on just a solitary losing bonus point from their opening game against Scotland.

For Wales to avoid the wooden spoon they will need to beat Italy with a four-try bonus point and overturn their points difference deficit.

Wales currently have a points difference deficit of 35 to Ireland, who host Scotland, and 37 points to Italy.

Results will have a huge part in deciding which WXV tournament Wales will be part of come the Autumn and their qualification to the World Cup.

“We want to finish on a high. One, right some wrongs, two, put a performance in,” said Wales forward Georgia Evans.

“We showed glimpses against France of what we can do when we’re on fire, it’s about being consistent across the 80 minutes. There’s no hiding from it, we need points on the board and then kick off from it with wherever we may end up in September, October time.

“When you’re in that slump it’s hard to dig yourself out of it. I’ve been around for a while, with many a campaign where we’ve been at the bottom of it all and people are calling to sack us all, get rid of everyone.

“At the end of the day only us as players can make this better, dig ourselves out of it and I know we’re capable of it because we’ve done it many times before.”

An area Wales have struggled with during this Six Nations is scoring tries having only scored four this campaign.

Despite dominating both possession and territory against France they were unable to cross the tryline.

Evans played at eight last Sunday and says despite the scoreboard there was improvement in the performance compared to the game against Ireland.

Ireland sobered us up, put our feet back on the ground a little bit,” said Evans.

“France was tough, it was always going to be a battle but I think we showed the growth we had during that week.

“Attacking wise we put some good phases together I think we righted some wrongs we needed to, unfortunately we couldn’t get on the scoreboard which is the tale of the Six Nations for us at this moment in time.

“We can take some confidence from going toe-to-toe with the best when it comes to France. We can be confident going into this week and take some learnings from it/

“From the start of this campaign it was about putting performances together as a team and we can’t shy away from the fact we haven’t converted on the board and that’s something we are really working hard on trying to do.”

The defeat against France was Wales’ seventh in succession but Evans believes that run is not due to a lack of quality within the Welsh team.

“We have a better team than we’ve ever had before,” said Evans.

“We’ve got the strength in depth, new caps coming through who are showing absolute stardom when they’re coming on the field and playing, we’ve got everything we need to be a successful team.

“I think it’s sobered us up that teams have caught up to where we are, they were slightly behind on the professionalism scale and have caught up rapidly.

“We probably took our foot off the gas and we’re the first ones to hold our hands up to say we haven’t done what we needed to do this Six Nations and what was expected of us.

“It’s not that we’ve got worse it’s that other teams have caught up and now its about how we put our foot back on that gas pedal and get where we need to be and we know we can do it with the best.”

The game at the Principality Stadium is one of four with the women’s Bowl, Plate and Cup finals also on the same day.

“We’re excited to go into the stadium and make it our home for the day and put on a performance for the girls and with the games afterwards we’re hoping to start the day with a bang,” said Evans.

“We’re really excited because we get to support them as they’ve supported us, throughout the campaign we’ve seen the growth in the sport and the growth in Welsh women’s rugby.

“We’ve got so many fans that come in week in week out, stay behind afterwards and we can’t thank them enough, without them we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing.”