Bill Carne recently met up with Jonathan Evans, the inspirational head coach to the Greenhill School team that reached the Vase Final in the Welsh Schools’ set-up, and discovered that he is also a two-time ‘Welsh Iron Man’ contestant in his spare time . . .

When Greenhill School reached the final of the Welsh Schools' Vase competition at the Principality Stadium one of the proudest people in attendance was undoubtedly their head coach Jonathan Evans, who teaches IT at the school.

So he would unhesitatingly nominate the achievement of his talented squad in reaching the final of the Vase Competition where they played in the final against a combined team from Aberdare and Mountain Ash Comprehensives and narrowly lost.

He might have been forgiven for complaining about playing against the cream of two opposing school teams but there was none of that: just a determination to sing the praises of everyone involved from Greenhill School, from staff, parents, the huge crowd of students who travelled 200 miles to share the occasion, plus talented young players he had seen develop over a number of years.

"Max Brindley and Ben Pugh were superb captain and vice-captain, the whole squad was totally committed - and I had great help from Justin Richards (school business officer), Phil Williams (Head of PE), and Chris Oliver.

“We were very much in contention at 12-12 but conceded a late converted try that cost us the game - but we showed terrific sportsmanship afterwards to demonstrate what we are all about.

Coincidentally, Jonathan was interested in football in his early days at Lampeter Comprehensive and played in the Ceredigion League as a goalkeeper - but then he was soon involved in a school rugby team coached by Alan Rees, who is still involved at Aberaeron RFC.

Then it was on to Llandovery Youth team for a couple of seasons alongside Welsh giant Luke Charteris in the newly-formed Premier Youth League where they played against the likes of Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Neath and Llanelli as some of the 'big boys' in the competition.

"I went on to senior rugby in Division Three (West) with Lampeter and was really enjoying it when I suffered a nasty injury in a game – it was awful.”

With little chance of ever playing again, Jonathan wanted to remain in the game and decided that a good way to do that was to take up coaching, with his natural teaching skills sure to be a great help. So in 2009, at the ripe old age of 25, he earned his stripes by passing his level one and level two badges - and threw himself in at the deep end by coaching his former teammates in the Lampeter first XV!

"I was a bit nervous," admitted Jonathan, “but they were very responsive during my two-year stint there before I took my level three badge at the Welsh RU headquarters at The Vale, with former Welsh prop Duncan Jones, former Neath winger Kevin Jones and Jonathan Llewellin, who has done so much good work for youth rugby in Pembrokeshire.

"It was a big step up because we were together on a series of weekends with WRU staff coaches and as well as showing our ability to communicate with players we had to keep files of evidence of the work we had done and when I was told I had passed I was both delighted and relieved at the same time."

Then Jonathan had a season coaching the Pembrokeshire squad for the Dewar Shield competition alongside Jeff Clout and David Cook - and after just missing out to a strong Caerphilly team in the main competition managed to reach the semi-final of the plate competition.

"It shows the strength of the squad we had as props Scott Jenkins (Crymych) and Rhys Fawcett excelled in conjunction with Josh McLeod (Scarlets) and Lewys Gibby (Narberth) as key players."

"I also got involved with The Scarlets under 16s as backs coach to Paul Fisher and it was great to be involved with quality players like Ryan Conbeer (now scoring tries for The Scarlets senior team, and Dom Booth, another international player from Tenby."

In all that he has done in rugby, Jonathan has received terrific family support and none more so than his wife Penny, who teaches in Hook and enjoys running - and they have an eager daughter in Thea, who will be three in July.

Also readily available throughout his younger days were his dad Arwyn and late mum Dot, whom he describes as fantastic parents, with twin brother Tim having played twice in the centre for the Indian national team after qualifying through Dot. Tim has also played good-quality rugby in Spain and is currently playing in Hong Kong.

Outside of his rugby, Jonathan has taken part in the Welsh Iron Man on two occasions, starting in 2015 after he watched the previous year and caught the bug.

"My swimming was an obvious weakness because I hadn't completed a full length of the pool since I was about 12 - but I went to the local pool and gradually built up my distances in the pool, although I knew it was nothing like being in the open sea off Tenby.

"I did this alongside working hard at the cycling and running components, which I was confident would be OK, and as curtain raisers I took part in the Llanelli Half Marathon and the Manchester Marathon, as well as completing the Long Course Weekend to test my endurance over three days.

"On the big day I had wonderful family support and did the swim 1 hour 35 minutes, the cycle ride in seven hours and the marathon in 4.5 hours and my time if a shade over 14 hours was fantastic.

"The next year I was more aware of what was needed and although it seemed just as tough I cut my time to 13 hours and 2 minutes; and as to a third attempt - who knows," he says with a chuckle!

But ask Jonathan Evans about rugby coaching and he has no doubt that he will continue his involvement with school and club - and do it with the total commitment that is part of his make-up. He is great at getting players involved and long may he continue to grace the game at all levels!