Harlequins captain Danny Care ranks Nick Evans as Premiership's best-ever overseas player

Nick Evans is the best overseas player in the history of the Aviva Premiership, claims Danny Care as his Harlequins team-mate prepares to play his final home game for the club tonight.

That is a bold statement considering English rugby’s top‑flight has boasted international talents such as Francois Pienaar, Michael Lynagh, Philippe Sella, Sebastien Chabal, George Smith, Matt Burke, Pat Lam and Pat Howard.

However, Quins captain Care is adamant the 36-year-old former All Black fly-half deserves that accolade as he prepares to retire next month.

During nine years at Quins, Evans has amassed 1,618 points, putting him fourth in the Premiership’s all‑time scoring list.

Evans helped Quins win the title in 2012 and ahead of tonight’s match with Wasps, Care said: “No one has been more important to the way we play at Quins than Nick. He is, without doubt, the best overseas player the Premiership has had.

“It is great that he will still be doing some coaching but it is sad I won’t be going to war with him at my side every weekend. Nick has made me the player I am and has an ability to make other players around him better than they are. He was so quick back in the day that if you threw a pass five yards in front of him he would still catch it. That is down to one yard now because he is 36!”

Quins are desperate to mark their 150th season by qualifying for the European Champions Cup, placing extra importance on tonight’s match. The top six teams are guaranteed a spot in the competition and seventh-placed Quins are a point behind Northampton and the sides meet in the final round of the regular season next week.

“We said at the start of the season the minimum we wanted to achieve was Champions Cup rugby,” said scrum-half Care. “If we win our last two games we can guarantee that but they are very tough matches.”

Saracens face relegated Bristol tomorrow with Kelly Brown and Neil de Kock making their last home appearances before retiring.

London Irish are in the first leg of their promotion semi-final play-off against Doncaster on Sunday.