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Evan Olmstead is not a man to get wound up about much.

“You only have to have a look at his appearance to see which way he’ll go,” says Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards about the Canadian/Australian back.

Saturday’s visit of Bristol will be only the Falcons’ sixth game of the season but already their summer signing has made a big impression.

In the world of professional sport, the man with the pony tail and the bushy beard is a refreshing personality who has life in perspective. “It’s the best job in the world, playing rugby,” he says. “It’s the best fun you can have.”

Some players and fans will have had a miserable week after the Falcons were edged out 11-9 by a Worcester side able to celebrate their first Premiership win of the season. Not Olmstead.

“That’s just the type of person I am,” the Canada international says in his Australian accent. “I’m a positive kind of guy and there’s no point getting down in the dumps.

“You don’t ignore your mistakes, but you bear in mind that where there are bad things there are also good things. You don’t have to feel devastated, even though you do straight after a defeat. You don’t need to be super-depressed, you just learn from it and move on to the next challenge.”

Olmstead gets his perspective from his upbringing.

“I’m 25 now,” he explains. “Three or four years ago I was done with uni and working in finance for Johnson and Johnson in Sydney. I am an accountant by background, I had trained with New South Wales Waratahs but broke my ankle when my coach Michael Foley moved to Western Force. I missed the boat a little bit as a result.

“There was a big gap between that and the next level of club rugby and you had to work a day job and go to the gym or train at night. You plug away, and after playing under-20s I started getting myself involved with Canada A towards the end of 2014. That is when it started to become more of a stretch with work because I was having to get more and more time off.

“I was working for a company called Striker at this stage, they were really good to me and once I had my nose in the Canada squad for the Rugby World Cup last year it has been a bit of a whirlwind. In the space of a year-and-a-half I went from being an accountant playing provincial rugby to being an international and Premiership full-time player.”

According to Richards, “The beauty of people who haven’t played in the Premiership is that they have no qualms or worries about it. They don’t really know what they’ve let themselves in for, they just go out and play, and that’s what he’s done. He’s had no hang ups at all about it.

“Some of the guys who have watched it or played in it for years might have much more of a hang up than someone like Evan who just comes and says, ‘What’s it all about? Let’s just go out and play’.”

Olmstead can see pros and cons to the route he has taken.

“We have the RPA (Rugby Players’ Association) who come here and are always challenging guys about what they are going to do after rugby,” he points out. “That’s already sorted for me because I’ve already qualified and done the job, but I was always very jealous of those guys who were in academies. They had those in Oz, too, and I would have loved to have been in them. It’s the golden ticket if you can get in.

“My dad was a good hockey player growing up but his old man wouldn’t let him quit school at 16 to play hockey. He always reminded me of that. He would never stop me from playing rugby, but he would always say make sure you have something behind you in case it doesn’t work out. It’s not going to be the most comfortable life if you’re just driving a taxi or whatever, but luckily with the way things worked out it has taken care of itself.”

And when he had the chance to step up from the Championship, where he played for London Scottish, to the top-flight, Olmstead had no reservations.

“I have always backed myself to say that once I get an opportunity, I will make it,” he says. “I always thought to myself quietly that once I make it to a team, then I will start playing for it.

“I’m not content to be a squad guy and be a bag-holder, which in some ways is why the World Cup was so frustrating. I knew I was good enough to be playing every game but I wasn’t always selected, and when I went into the national team training camp I was determined to be the guy who worked the hardest just so they would keep me. My mindset was that once they see me they’ll have to pick me.

“Obviously it doesn’t always work out that way, but hopefully it does. If you back yourself it can help other people to back you, like Dean Richards has at Newcastle.”