Land of the rising scrum for Parling
some extent. Look at the Pro14 with the South African sides.
“I’d say if you put on a game in Tokyo people would come. The Top League here finishes in the middle of January, so if you had it in February or March it would work. We get about 4,000 for a game but we had Auckland here for a pre-season game, they really pushed it and 15,000 came.”
Parling, 34, is on a globetrotting mission having left Sandy Park in the summer. He has signed for Munakata Sanix Blues for two seasons with a spell of Super Rugby with the Melbourne Rebels sandwiched in between.
After taking a dip in the sea after training, Parling explains how he came to be sitting in a Fukuoka cafe where a Japanese Mafia hit took place last year, sipping green tea.
“As soon as I was offered Super Rugby, I was very keen to jump in. I wanted to see what I could offer and I just wanted my family to try something different,” he said. “With the Japan part, I just joined blind. I hadn’t spoken to anyone at the club, it was through an agent I’d never met before.
“My mum and dad were a bit shocked but I thought, ‘I’m never going to get another chance like this’.
“It has been good for me. I’ve always liked things to be done a certain way. I like to be very organised. But I’ve realised out here I have to open myself up. I’ve had to learn to do things a bit differently.”
A pre-season training camp at a traditional ryokan inn where he slept on the floor and ate from an ‘I’m a Celebrity’ menu illustrated the point early on, as did the process of moving his wife and three young children into a new flat.
“On the day we moved in it was roasting hot and there wasn’t any air conditioning,” he said. “I went off to training leaving the missus sweating on the floor with the baby waiting for an Ikea delivery thinking, ‘Jesus, what is this?’
“But the flip side is that I’ve found the people to be so friendly and helpful. Where we live there are no foreigners and my baby girl and daughter, who has blonde hair, get mobbed.
“We’ve played four games so far and I’ve found it quick but it’s definitely not as physical. After a Premiership game your upper body will be sore; here, you will be blowing but you won’t feel as stiff. The men are smaller and they tackle lower.”
Parling wants to move into coaching eventually and is cutting his teeth in Japan by tutoring the lineout. Not easy using a translator.
At one of the smaller clubs in the league, he senses Sanix lack belief when it comes to playing the top teams. “I found that when I first joined Exeter too,” he said. That is manifestly no longer the case for the Premiership champions, who Parling is backing for a strong title defence this season.
NORTHAMPTON have signed South Africa forward Heinrich Brussow for the second half of the season.
The 31-year-old flanker, who has 23 caps for the Springboks, will arrive at Franklin’s Gardens in January. 3CD’s for only £14.99 +p&p 50 tracks on 3 CD’s including “Up Where We Belong”, “I love Lucy”, “Moonlighting”, “The Saint”, “Dallas”, “The Fugitive”, “Star Trek”, “Mission: Impossible”.
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