WAYNE Evans insists Newport Gwent Dragons want to finish the job tomorrow and make certain of qualifying for next season’s Heineken Cup by beating Edinburgh at Rodney Parade.
They will have one eye on the Scarlets game against Cardiff Blues tonight, for if the Blues win the Magners League Welsh derby at Parc y Scarlets the Dragons would need only a losing bonus point tomorrow to be absolutely certain of finishing at least third placed Welsh team.
That would condemn the Scarlets to bottom place among the Welsh sides and totally reliant on the Blues winning the Amlin Challenge Cup if they are to retain the place they have held in Europe’s premier competition for all 15 years of its existence.
Scrum half Evans admits, “There will be big pressure off us if we don’t have to look down, but the Scarlets are very good at home and can score tries. Mathematically they can still get into Europe so we’ve got to make sure we do a job with a good win.”
He comes up against Scotland and Lions scrum half Mike Blair, who leads the Edinburgh team, ready to do battle with another Lion weeks after seeing Mike Phillips off in the brilliant victory over the Ospreys.
“Mike is one of the best in Britain, he went on the last Lions tour but is just behind Chris Cusiter now so he’ll be trying to get back to being No 1 for Scotland,” he said.
“It’s going to be a tough one to handle, but if he doesn’t get good ball he can’t do much. It’s good to play against the big names, but you only have a slight battle against them. You have two packs between you and if they get at the nine it makes his job difficult.”
Evans’ partnership with Jason Tovey has contributed significantly to the Dragons’ progress this season.
“I enjoy playing with him, he’s such a talented individual, he has a licence to play and if I can take the pressure off him it’s better for everyone,” he said.
“He’s quite a laid back character and it’s good to have someone to give directions to the forwards, you’ve got to spread the responsibility around. But most of all I love how the crowd are here, you don’t get much of that any more.”
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