Kiwi Parkes to make Wales debut - by skin of his teeth

CARDIFF (United Kingdom): Back in autumn 2014, Hadleigh Parkes was busy docking lambs of their tails on the family farm in rural New Zealand, not too put out by a delay in getting a British working visa and a train ticket to Llanelli in west Wales.

As it turns out, the visa came through with the most fortuituous timing.

Residency of three years, to the day, comes up on Saturday. It means Parkes becomes eligible to play for his adopted homeland of Wales under current World Rugby rules which will change next season to five years in a bid to crack down on players switching allegiance so easily.

And Wales coach Warren Gatland has had no hesitation pitching his fellow Kiwi straight into the fray, naming the Scarlets back at inside centre for the Test against South Africa.

“It’s truly humbling, but a massive privilege as well to be given this opportunity, it’s something I thought would never happen,” said the 30-year-old.

“To be given this opportunity from the management team is very exciting and I’m happy to be involved.”

Park es, who has been in inspirational form for Scarlets under his former Auckland mentor Wayne P iv ac, said his voyage towards wearing the red jersey had got off to a sticky beginning.

“We were having a few visa problems at the start,” he said. “It took a while for it to come through, which at the time I was on holiday so I wasn’t complaining too much... I was docking sheep the last couple of weeks.

“But hindsight’s a beautiful thing, it would have been great if it had come through a couple of weeks earlier.”