Remembering Keri Evans

As a PE teacher at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, Evans had a huge influence on some of the game’s biggest names and inspired a new generation of coaches. He was also a top-class referee – as well as being the fourth official during Wales’ Grand Slam-clinching 2005 match against Ireland – renowned for his quick wit.

Hailing from the rugby hotbed of Trebanos in the Swansea Valley, Evans’s early days as a player saw him feature as a hooker for Cardiff – his promise was such that he was even capped at Wales U16 level.

As a teacher, he coached some of Glantaf’s great rugby sides. However, it mattered more to Evans that his pupils became good people. Below, some of them describe the impact he had on their lives.

Keri Evans’s family have asked that if anybody wishes to make a contribution in his name, to please do so to Velindre and Marie Curie, who took great care of him.

Scarlets and Wales fly half Rhys Patchell wrote: “It’s difficult to pay tribute to Keri Evans in a few words. Books could be written, and you would only begin to scratch the surface of a man who had such influence on so many. A teacher, a coach and an inspiration to all those who passed through the gates of Ysgol Glantaf, he will be sorely missed by all. My thoughts are with his family. I know they were his world.

“I remember meeting Mr Evans for the first time. He was my first swimming teacher. Fortunately for me, this was to be the first meeting of many. For seven years, he would be an ever-present part of school life. Coaching the rugby team, encouraging extracurricular activities, offering sage pieces of advice to those willing to ask and listen.

“It was a real privilege that he picked me to be his captain, and through our discussions at lunchtime and training, his vision of the game became my vision of the game. He cultivated our ambition to play the game in the ‘right’ way – “skill is forever”. A game where the ball moved from one side of the pitch to the other. A game where flair and cunning would trump size and brute force. A game where the collective was far superior to the individual. I remember that as a youngster, I once threw a dummy and scored myself rather than pass on a 2 v 1. Mr Evans penalised me – “Penalty, dull play”. I never made that mistake again.

“A great man, his guidance through those Glantaf years had a huge bearing on my career and life beyond those seven years. It was a pleasure to have him as a teacher; it is my privilege that he became my friend. I will miss our coffees and chats. I learnt as much in those hours in coffee shops as I did in all my years in a classroom.

“During one of our catch-ups I asked him about his career in education. “I have lived the dream,” he told me with so much emotion I could taste it. Diolch, Mr Evans, for showing so many of us how to live ours.

Wales and British and Irish Lions centre Jamie Roberts added his own personal tribute.

“Keri was a wonderful man. He did everything with a smile on his face – even when he was telling you off, because he understood what you were doing but wanted you to see that it was wrong.

“He always wanted the best for you and he was a huge influence in my life: in my career, but even more as a person because he was a man of brilliant values. Yes, he was renowned for being a great teacher who loved his rugby, but more importantly he saw us all become men and cared deeply about us being good people.

“One of my fondest memories of Keri is him giving penalties for dull play when he refereed school games. If you’d done something stupid on the pitch he’d give a penalty to the opposition.

“He cared so much about us beyond our school years. He was a figurehead of the Glantaf rugby alumni group, making sure that everyone stuck together. He saw power in that. That was one of his greatest attributes: he was a very sociable, very likeable man who had wonderful values.

“He will be greatly missed by everyone.”

Former Clwb Rygbi head coach Gareth Williams, who was taught by and coached with Keri Evans, said:

“Mr Evans, Keri, KPE.

“Keri’s loss will be great one for his family. His wife Iola and their children, Dafydd and Elin Kate.

“And then you consider his wider family. All the pupils that went through Ysgol Glantaf. Is there a rugby player from the school who doesn’t remember Keri saying “upstairs for thinking, downstairs for dancing, boys”? Or, if we didn’t pass the ball when we had an overlap, “Penalty – dull play!” Or how about when our little team were up against some giants on the field? “Skill is forever, boys”.

“Keri was an inspiration to everyone, and his former pupils and colleagues, such as Peter Manning, Huw Gat Llywelyn, and more recently Rhydian Garner, will miss him a lot.

“He was a fantastic referee and did that role to a high level in the rugby world. But once he’d stopped refereeing he came to coach Clwb Rygbi Cymry Caerdydd. Starting in Division 6, the process of promotion began under Keri’s leadership. The players thought the world of him. And the team played the same style as Glantaf teams. Keri Evans’s team. Run and pass. “Let the ball do the work.”

“But more important than all of this was the man himself. Keri Evans was a gentleman. A kind man. A warm man.

“His close family will feel his loss enormously. And his wider family will remember him as one of their heroes.”

Nick Robinson, Cardiff Blues and Wales fly-half, concluded: “Like so many others that have been taught or met Mr Keri Evans – or ‘Mr Evs’ as he was known by us – he left you with some wonderful memories. Many of mine include my early years at Glantaf when I first started playing rugby, but beyond that too.

“His enthusiasm for the game and how it should be played in a positive way has stayed with me. His would bring out his “skill is forever” line whenever someone questioned his ability with a rugby ball!

“I will always be grateful to Mr Evs for starting me off in the perfect way down the rugby road. He will be missed by so many in the rugby community whose lives and careers he has impacted so positively.

“My thoughts are with his wife Iola and their children, Elin Kate and Dafydd, at such a sad time.”