SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS


Iain Morrison: Max speeds in with display to match brother




THESE THINGS go in cycles. For years Gordon Bulloch was the only international hooker of note in Scotland and now we have four. Kenny Logan got more caps than some expected because he had precious little competition on the wing and Frank Hadden is now spoilt for choice.
Scotland still has a dearth of top quality fly-halfs but boast three excellent No.9s and Mark McMillan might yet make it four.

Scotland had to press-gang a winger in the shape of Simon Webster into the 13 shirt for the big matches in the World Cup. Yet in the 12 months since Scotland have unearthed two outside centres of true Test quality in Nick De Luca and Ben Cairns. After watching Glasgow run in five tries against the Scarlets on Friday night, that figure might rise to three.

Max Evans is really only in his second year of proper professional rugby and he makes enough mistakes to give his coach a seizure. He is out of position almost as often as he is in position, he flings hail Mary back-flip passes out of contact and his defence needs some work.

Despite all this, he has one asset that sends a shiver of fear through the opposition defence – pace. Over the first 40 yards he is as fast as younger brother Thom and after years of watching fleet-footed Welshmen running rings around lumbering Scots it was a joy to see the speed on the other foot on Friday.

Scotland's problem in pro rugby was always that the teams lacked pace to score long-range tries – not any more. In one brilliant move Dan Parks sparked a counter-attack from his own 22 that saw the ball reach Max Evans on the left. He set off and side-stepped Scarlets' centre Regan King with all the authority with which King normally wrong foots others.

Max continued his run before feeding brother Thom who outpaced the opposition to the line for an 80-yard try. Little wonder his coach referred to Max as "awesome". Thom scored two cracking good tries but Max still won man of the match.

"Well, I had to play well tonight," said Max, "because my father was in the stand. He flew in from Portugal today and he'll go back tomorrow. He always complains that my stamina is not very good so I had to prove him wrong tonight, although I was shattered by the end."

The evening ended with the Evans brothers being mobbed by 50-odd kids, signing autographs, offering high-fives and generally revelling in the limelight. Thom is used to it, Max may have to get used to it.

This article was originally posted on 28-Sep-2008, 08:15 by Hugh Barrow.
Last updated by Hugh Barrow on 28-Sep-2008, 21:31.