Rugby Union: The style and pace of a Scarlet pimpernel: Steve Bale discusses the Lions' creed with the reborn Llanelli winger, Ieuan Evans

ON A Lions tour the grand design is actually rather simple: that 30 players from the British Isles reach a peak together for the greatest adventure of their rugby lives. Would that it were so easy for everyone to be performing like Ieuan Evans.

It is as if the genie in the 29- year-old Wales captain has been released here in New Zealand. His tries for the Lions against North Harbour and the Maoris were contrasting classics of the wingman's art: the one a dash for the corner, the other an exquisite glide inside and then outside bewildered defenders.

With the Underwood brothers voracious for tries as well, wing is probably where the Lions are strongest but, even taking nothing for granted, Evans already has one hand on the No 14 Test jersey. 'Competition is healthy - whatever your politics are,' he smiled. 'On this tour none of us dares allow his standards to slip.'

This is very different from Evans's experience with Wales, where - apart from the agonising injury absences which he estimates have deducted three and a half years and more than 20 caps from his international career - he has been unrivalled as first-choice right wing since 1987.

Even so, Evans has played better and better, and despite the travails his Welsh team underwent last season his personal form was superlative. He followed his match- winning try against England with another against Ireland, adding a total of 29 tries for Llanelli including 20 during the Scarlets' triumphant march to the Welsh league title, eight on the way to the cup and one in their defeat of the Wallabies.

The season culminated in his almost unanimous selection by Welsh rugby writers as their player of the year. Then he received the prestigious Whitbread award as the home unions' player of the year last month on the day the Lions assembled in London.

All this, he reckons, is because he is at last free of injury. Evans has dislocated his right shoulder five times and had two operations, each of which resulted in lay-offs lasting eight months. For his pains, yesterday he was nursing a stiff neck, but he has now gone nearly three years without serious mishap.

'It's the longest run I've ever had without injuries. When I've been fit in between the other injuries I've always come into some sort of form and the longer I go without any bother the better my form seems to get. It was certainly a very good season for me and now that I'm in New Zealand surrounded by all these exceptional players it's up to me to raise my game still further.'

This is precisely what he has already done. Gavin Hastings, the Lions captain, credited the resurrection against the Maoris to Evans, first for the brilliant execution of his try and then for launching a second try a couple of minutes later. In the blinking of an eye the score had gone from 3-20 to 17-20 and Hastings' subsequent try took the tourists to a famous victory.

As far as Evans is concerned, his decisive contribution is already history. Indeed, after the match he was more concerned with a missed tackle in the build-up to the Maoris' first try than anything he may have done in attack and counter-attack.

'On tour the last game is yesterday's news and the worst thing I could possibly do is dwell on it. So it's gone from my mind already and I'm now looking forward to my next opportunity. When you are on tour it's crucial that you don't look back to games other than as an information exercise.'

Perhaps this is where Wales failed last season after beating England, though Evans has always insisted that none of his players' feet were allowed to leave the ground even in the euphoric aftermath of that win. Alas for the captain, Wales proceeded to lose all three remaining matches and, despite his best efforts, finished the Five Nations' Championship with the wooden spoon.

At least on a Lions tour he is spared wider obligation, though his status as a national captain unavoidably makes him one of the more influential members of the party. 'For the last two seasons I've had the responsibility of leadership, but here I'm only one of 30 players,' he said.

'Of course I have responsibility as a senior player and as a previous Lion, but my real responsibility in New Zealand is to perform on the field. It is a pleasant change. Not that I feel it affects my form for Wales that I'm captain; I've shown it doesn't. But on this tour I'm out there as No 14 and that's it.'

Evans was a previous Lion in Australia in 1989, scoring the vital try in the deciding third Test when David Campese's loose pass on his own line eluded Greg Martin. Every moment is etched in Evans's memory. It was the crowning glory of 'the best tour I've ever been on in every respect'.

This has much to do with the mystical quality of the Lions, the sense of honour and privilege that players selected freely express but find difficult to explain. Careless talk about the supposedly threatened future of the Lions is anathema to Evans, who told the awards lunch in London that their extinction would be 'a tragedy'.

He said this because he has been fortunate enough to experience - and benefit from - the coming-together of the best of British Isles rugby and the elation that comes from playing at a superior standard to anything else his career might contain. 'A Lions tour is just so different. There's a persistent nervousness about letting yourself down in front of the best players we have in our rugby. It causes tremendous tension inside players; you can only hope that you respond in such a way that it becomes a creative tension.

'It can work both ways, but with players of our experience and ability it should be more of a positive than negative response. Lions tours come round once every four years and if you are lucky enough to have that chance you have to grab it.' Or else regret it for the rest of your days - though in Ieuan Evans's case, of this there is absolutely no danger.

(Photograph omitted)