Friendly Castres suiting Evans to a tee

HEINEKEN CUP POOL 6:

The nine-hole layout in the Agout Valley might be expected to disappoint a man who once toured as a golf pro and a man who still carries a three or four handicap and one who would have few complaints were he told to tee off scratch.

Not so. For Evans, the chance to smack a few balls in such alluring surrounds is just one of the many reasons why he is already on his second contract with the French champions having made the switch from the Glasgow Warriors in 2011.

That reputation the French have for being aloof? A misconception, he insists. The bonhomie he has experienced has infused his life on and off the pitch. The locals are friendly and days at the club start with everyone in the squad shaking hands.

Some of the French guys kiss each other on the cheek.

That was disconcerting at first but Evans has long bought into it and notes that Gregor Townsend introduced the concept — the handshake, that is, not the kiss — at his former club having played in France for five years and Castres for two.

Which is all fine and dandy, but the raison d’etre for Evans being in France is rugby and he has enjoyed the good luck to pitch up in the small and unfashionable town at a time when the club’s fortunes are peaking at a 20-year high.

A first Top 14 title since 1993 was pilfered from under the noses of the sugar-daddy clubs last June and they currently lie just four points off the summit again despite a change of coaches and the bullseye that being champions places on their backs.

This is a club whose €17m budget is not to be sniffed at yet is still half that of Toulouse and considerably less than the likes of Toulon and Clermont, but that culture of brotherhood and respect and one devoid of egos makes up the difference.

Add all that up and Evans’ experience has to be up there with the best among the growing number of British and Irish players who have been lured to the continent and he hasn’t been slow in selling the place’s charms.

Richie Gray was given the hard sell when he was looking to put as much distance as possible between him and Sale after a miserable season in England. Johnnie Beattie, who is set to join them from Montpellier next term, has sought counsel too.

Such conversations cross borders, too.

Agents may do most of the talking at contract-time but it would be odd if the likes of Sean O’Brien and Jamie Heaslip didn’t lean on friendships made through experiences such as their British and Irish Lions tour to suss out the French landscape too.

That the rugby is a small, sparsely populated one is further evidenced by the fact that Evans and Rob Kearney are good mates since their parents landed in the same resort in Portugal a few years back.

Still, not everyone finds the living easy in Europe. Or the rugby.

Jonathan Sexton is the most obvious example of someone who has — thus far — endured a tough settling-in period with Racing Metro floundering despite the largesse of Jacky Lorenzetti and his own best efforts.

“It’s definitely a player-by-player thing and also club-by-club,” says Evans. “Some are a dream but others aren’t. There are some coaches here who take a grinding approach to playing players and games and that has to be the most important factor when anyone is making a decision. Let’s be honest, the money is a big thing. So are the other externals like location and lifestyle. I came from Glasgow and I wanted to see the sun more than once a year but it all comes down to, will you enjoy your rugby? I’ve signed on again since I came because I fell in love with the culture and I’m happy in my rugby.”

It hasn’t all been sweetness and light.

Evans found himself relegated to 24th man for the Top 14 semi-final and final last season and his involvement with Scotland has been squeezed with a new bunch of wingers and centres yet every word out of his mouth about France is positive.

Even seemingly routine fixtures, like the one away to Grenoble late last month, have been memorable. In Grenoble’s case it was the majestic sight of the Alps looming as backdrop to the cosier confines of the Stade Lesdiguieres. That was the third time this season that Castres were beaten by four points or less away and Evans believes that more than one could have been edged had they bottled what it is that has left them unbeaten at home this last 12 months.

‘L’esprit de clocher’, they call parish pride in France. The spirit of the bell tower. Evans hears it in everyone he meets on the week of a home game and he sees it too in the ‘Castres Olympique’ logos engraved on the windows of the town’s businesses.

He’s honest enough to admit that the buzz isn’t normally the same in a Heineken Cup week but that home record requires preserving and the arrival in town of the three-time Heineken Cup champions doesn’t make for a normal European fixture even if Castres are some way short of their best XV.

“Maybe the fact this is possibly the last (Heineken Cup) has something to do with it. There are a lot of guys here who never made the knockout stages of the Heineken and want to do that. So do I. I never made it with Glasgow either and it is one of the ambitions I have in rugby.”

In his case at least, France is doing its most to match them.