Evans began his career playing rugby union and represented Hawke's Bay 19 times from 1906.
[2] While in Australia, Evans had been impressed by the rugby league code and, in 1911, he was instrumental in helping to persuade three Hawke's Bay clubs – Clive, Ahuriri and Kia Toa – to switch en masse to rugby league.
He played for the City club in the inaugural Hawke's Bay rugby league competition in 1911 playing 11 matches and 1 match for a combined City-Kia Ora team against Clive-Ahuriri for charity.
In the same season he played three matches for Hawke's Bay (two against Wanganui and one against Auckland).
In 1912, he played for Hawke's Bay against Wellington and then against the touring New South Wales rugby league team.