KEY POINTS:
It is a lifestyle to be envied.
Nick Evans' journey to work each morning at Harlequins rugby club takes him on a 10 minute drive through Richmond Park. It is a journey through the fauna, flora and history of one of England's great parks. He calls it "a
lovely way to go to work".
Here, Evans can see deer grazing, as they have done for centuries. Richmond was one of royalty's great hunting parks. Indeed, King Henry VIII is said to have been out hawking in the park one day in 1536 when he heard the bells of nearby London pealing, telling of his wife Anne Boleyn's execution.
Whether it is cruising through the park, walking in it, pottering around nearby Richmond-on-Thames or just going for a coffee near his home in trendy Wimbledon Village, Evans is revelling in the English lifestyle. Not even the recent tour of the All Blacks to the Northern Hemisphere, a tour party he would surely have made, has shaken his conviction that a move to Harlequins was a great idea.
Let's dispense instantly with the reasons, often elucidated. 1, the opportunity to see and experience another culture; 2, being able to travel through Europe in his time off and holidays, 3, the opportunity to play in various competitions, especially the Heineken Cup.
But there is more to it than that. "The rugby is part professional, part amateur, in a sense. I like being back in club rugby and I enjoy being able to go out for a beer or two with the boys or with friends if I want to. You switch on properly for training and playing, don't get me wrong. It is the same physicality. But back home, you are still involved in it even when you're away from the ground.
"Here, the fact that rugby is not the No 1 sport means I can just walk around and be another shadow in the street. I like that, it is very refreshing. You are not plastered all over the papers every day, either. So it's just good to get away and be normal."
Not even a damaged medial ligament in his right knee, suffered after just one match for his new club, has dimmed his enjoyment of his new lifestyle.
He missed six weeks' rugby but is relishing his return. "It was a tough hurdle to overcome but I am professional enough to know that is part of the game, just one of those things.
"Once I got over the initial disappointment and got back into rehab, it was okay. And besides, it's such a long season over here; you're hardly going to play every game."
It meant, too, he had some spare time to explore a bit of London and the south of England. He jumped into his car and drove to the coast to see Dover and the white cliffs. He watched an NFL game at the new Wembley Stadium and visited some tiny old pubs, rich in smuggling history and old beams, in Kent and Sussex.
When this season is over, he will spend time in Europe, visiting famous sites and some French vineyards.
But doesn't he miss the magic of the All Blacks? "Leaving New Zealand was definitely the hardest decision I have had to make. I still felt I had a lot of rugby left in me but it was the new challenge that was the key, like another chapter in my rugby book.
"But I admit it was hard to watch the Tri-Nations and not be there. I didn't watch the first week; it was a bit too soon. But once I got over that, I sat back and enjoyed being an All Blacks supporter. I would love to have been there, but once you get your head around the fact that you've made your decision, you move on and it's okay. It would have been different if I'd been pushed to come here but I wasn't.
"Coming here has been like recharging my batteries. I wasn't playing the amount of rugby I wanted to for the All Blacks. I had to sit back and think and when I did, I realised I didn't want to sit on the bench all the time. I still think the best is yet to come out of me as a player and so I did what was best for me in my position.
"It is a big challenge for me to come here and play my best rugby. The All Blacks set up and the whole professionalism of it all demands such a high class of rugby, it makes you play your best. You have to, to survive. But now my task is to match those standards here with Harlequins. And you have to pace yourself. I took the same All Blacks kind of intensity into my pre-season work here but I soon realised that if I did that throughout 35 weeks, I would burn myself out long before the end.
"So it is about managing yourself, switching off when you can but then when it is 'go' time, you still remember that top class effort when you have to."
"There used to be a lot of difference in past years between the two hemispheres but those gaps are shortening. Yet it is still a quicker game back home. Another difference is that in New Zealand, you get maybe three try scoring opportunities in a game. If you don't take them you get punished. Here, you get a few more."
Evans isn't pining for home, he isn't dreaming of clambering aboard a flight for Auckland to end his Northern Hemisphere sojourn. The truth is, he is looking forward to the next three years. But ask him whether it's possible he might go home and try to win a place in the All Blacks' squad for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, and he is far from dismissive.
In fact, he says quite openly, "It has crossed my mind. And you never say never. I would love to play in another World Cup and I'd only be 30. But it is still over three years away and a lot of water is still to go under the bridge before I even think about it seriously. But I haven't dismissed the idea entirely of going back and playing rugby again. It would be lovely to go back if the opportunity arises and once I have spent time here.
"If, in three years time, I was still fit and playing good rugby and felt I could give it a crack, then I would.
"So I am really enjoying my life here. But who knows what the future might or not hold"?
Who indeed? Ask Anne Boleyn ...
* Peter Bills is a rugby writer for Independent News & Media in London.
