Evans ‘devastated’ by fellow winger’s injury, but remains confident Scots can make their mark

SCOTLAND winger Max Evans said his heart went out to team-mate Nikki Walker after the Ospreys wing was ruled out of the World Cup through injury, but insisted that the squad would still go to New Zealand in their most creative mood for some time after Saturday’s 23-12 win over Italy.

Evans was one of the most dangerous players in Scotland’s win on Saturday and with his ability to also cover centre he was certain to be part of the World Cup campaign. Walker also looked set to be confirmed until he suffered knee ligament damage. Evans admitted that it was the unspoken horror among all players preparing for the tournament.

“My first question when I came into the changing room was ‘How’s Nikki?’” he said, before knowing the extent of the damage. “If it’s the worst then I’m absolutely devastated for him.

“When you’ve asked me before about going into games in light of [brother] Thom’s injury, I relate it to the advice I got as a kid from catching a cricket ball, where you were told if you were worried about catching a high ball you’d get hurt. It’s the same here where guys obviously have it in the back of their minds that they don’t want to get injured but can’t go into a game thinking that or else you will, so everyone was going full-out in every game. You really feel for Nikki.

“The other side is that it is a great feeling personally to be fully fit and able to be selected and get on that plane.”

Evans’ shift to the wing has added to the threat in the Scottish ranks and his ability to steal yards from nothing was crucial in setting up prop Alasdair Dickinson for the first try on Saturday.

Italian coach Nick Mallet felt that some referees might have penalised Evans for not releasing the ball when on the ground, but the Scot insisted there was nothing illegal in what he did.

“I’ve been in that situation before,” he said, “a wriggling situation, and if you’re not held on the ground after a tackle then you’re able to get back up and keep going. I was tackled but slipped through it and didn’t feel anyone holding me, so I got up and carried on.”

Another to push his claims for a starting slot in New Zealand was Nick De Luca. The outside centre has given the coaches a real dilemma after his rival for the 13 jersey, Joe Ansbro, played well and scored a try, set up by De Luca, against Ireland. De Luca insisted, however, that he had more to show.

“I’m very confident in my own abilities just now,” he said. “I’ve been training well and am flying high, so I was happy to again put in a solid performance.

“I don’t think it was anything special but hopefully I’ll save that for, if involved, the World Cup. We were disappointed to give them [Italy] two soft tries. Our defence was really good and we held them well, and then switched off for two tries. Going forward we scored lucky tries, Mike [Blair] doing really well, and Max showing great feet to get through and off-load, and I still think we’re creating the chances, but we should be putting more tries past teams and doing better.”