Evans: Missed win over Australia

With matches against Fiji and Samoa ahead, Evans accepts it will be tough to break into a winning team but has vowed to do all he can to make it happen.

He missed the win over Australia in Newcastle on Tuesday because his French club, Castres, would not release him ahead of their Top 14 semi-final against Toulouse.

That meant Evans did not join Andy Robinson's Scotland squad until after they had returned to Sydney, which is where they will be based until the weekend flight to the Pacific Islands.

Asked about his possible involvement in the upcoming games, Evans said as he arrived: "It is out of my hands, that is for the coaches to decide.

"All I can do is train well and put my hand up for selection. The coaches will decide whatever they see best and I will have to see what happens.

"Any opportunity to play for Scotland, and any Scotland game missed, is upsetting.

"At the same time, I got to play in the semi-final of the Top 14, which is a first for me as well. There are not too many complaints about that.

"There was maybe a brief moment when I was not sure if I would be playing against Toulouse [in the semi-final] or Australia, but it was much easier for me to focus on the game with Castres and then if there was any change it would look after itself.

"I had my bags packed just in case but it was easy to focus on the club game."

Evans had been at the centre of a dispute involving Scotland, Castres and the International Rugby Board after the midweek fixture revealed an ambiguity in the regulations covering when clubs have to release players for international fixtures.

Scotland claimed that Evans should have been released five days before the Test, but Castres, who lost 24-15 to their local rivals at the Toulouse Stadium, the city's football ground, insisted that the rules said they did not have to release him until Monday of this week, forcing him out of the Test team that faced Australia.

Evans stayed out of the controversy as far as possible.

"It was handled very well, because I was able to focus on what I was doing, which was to concentrate on the next game, which as it happened was the Castres game," he said.

"What was great was that the match I did play took place in such a superb atmosphere.

"We played at (Stade) Ernest Wallon [Toulouse's home ground] for the quarter-final against Montpellier and also played there when we played Munster in the Heineken Cup. Even though it is a derby, when Castres play and Toulouse are not in action, I think a lot of the Toulouse supporters tend to support us.

"It was a great atmosphere at the semi-final, really enjoyable to be part of - until the end."