Winning kick in Ireland seems a million years ago
SAYS DAN PARKS
Finn Russell should have gone on the Lions tour instead of Dan Biggar
IT’S just after 11am in The Pavilion café at Coogee Beach and in rushes a well-kent face familiar to Scottish rugby fans.
The sharp-suited Dan Parks has just come from having coffee with Peter Horne, the man he mentored at Glasgow Warriors during his playing days and is running a bit late.
‘It was great to see Pete again and we had a great chat,’ said Parks as he orders a lemonade. ‘I remember his first game against Ulster at Firhill in 2009.
‘He was 19 at the time and knew he had huge potential and it is great to see he has fulfilled it and is playing for Scotland.’
Parks, now 39, last played for Scotland against England at Murrayfield five years ago. After a spell at Cardiff Blues and Connacht, he returned two years ago for family reasons to Sydney where he grew up.
‘It was a tough decision to make but the time seemed right,’ said the man who scored an impressive 266 points for Scotland.
‘I was in Scotland, Ireland and Wales for 12 years and came back to Sydney for family reasons. Scotland will obviously always have a special place in my heart but I made the right decision.
‘Everything happens for a reason and for whatever reason I was destined to come back. I am now in a relationship with a child on the way which is fantastic and enjoying the life I have here.’
Parks lives in a lovely house in Randwick, not far away from the Scotland team hotel, where he still has some memorabilia from his rugby days. Pride of place is a selection of his Scotland jerseys and a Saltire flag signed by all of his team-mates during the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
By his bed is a Waterford Crystal Glass boot presented to him for becoming the first player to score more than 1,000 points in what was then known as the Magners League. He remains a busy man and combines a coaching role with the New South Wales Country Eagles with his job at a logistics company.
‘We had a very good year with the Eagles and we got to the Grand final where we lost to Perth,’ said Parks, who qualified for Scotland through his Ayrshire-born grandfather.
‘It is a very high standard of rugby with the league the equivalent of the ITM Cup in New Zealand or the Currie Cup in South Africa.
‘I also do kicking coaching and this morning, before I met Pete, I was up at half past five teaching two young guys at Newington College and I get a huge amount of satisfaction out of that.’
Parks admits moving back to Australia, coupled with the passage of time, makes it seem like his playing days with Scotland seems like about ‘a million years ago’.
‘I was round at my friend’s house the other night and he decided to have a look at my rugby highlights on YouTube,’ said Parks. ‘I was watching it thinking to myself: “Is that really me?”.
‘It was what I was doing at the time but now seems so long ago, a millions years ago. It was a fantastic time but it is strange looking back.’
Parks did split opinion during his career. Many of his critics reckoned he was not attackminded enough, although he was the hero for Scotland and Glasgow on many occasions.
One of his finest moments was the last-minute kick from the touchline that secured victory over Ireland at Croke Park in the 2010 Six Nations.
‘That was a tough penalty but I just felt I was going to get it that day,’ he recalled.
‘‘I felt confident I could draw the ball between the posts and that is exactly what I did.’
At club level Parks was part of the Glasgow side that famously beat the mighty Toulouse in 2009 kicking three penalties, three conversions and a drop goal in the 33-26 win. He keeps in touch with his team-mates from that day such as Graeme Morrison and Andy Henderson.
As well as Horne he has also met up with his former Scotland colleague Mike Blair, who is now on Gregor Townsend’s back-room staff here in Sydney.
As a former fly-half, the one Scottish player who has impressed him more than any other is Finn Russell. He has watched some of his games for Glasgow on television and all of his performances in the Six Nations where every single game is shown live on Australian television.
‘Back in my day my mum used to have to get up and go to the casino to watch Scotland in the Six Nations,’ Parks laughed. ‘It was the only place that would televise matches live in Australia in 2004 when I started playing for Scotland.
‘She would get up at 2am to watch the game and would go in there with the Scotland jersey I gave her. That was the only way she could see it. Now I can see the games anywhere.
‘I can see how great a player Finn Russell is and I think he should have been on the Lions tour. Who would he have gone instead of? Maybe Dan Biggar.
‘Finn is a fantastic talent. I have spoken to him a few times and he is a really exciting player. His flip pass the other day to set up the try for Ross Ford against Italy was superb. It is great to see him doing that and the team playing with what seems like a lot of confidence and enthusiasm.’
Looking forward to Scotland’s final tour game against Fiji in Suva next weekend, it is two former Glasgow Warriors players that Parks believes will prove to be the dangermen.
‘I never played with Niko Matawalu at Glasgow but played against him when I was at Connacht and what an absolute handful he is,’ said Parks. ‘He kept chatting away to himself all the time during the game and he was such a live-wire.
‘In the second row Leone Nakarawa is a world-class talent.
‘I watched him during the last World Cup and what a player. We have the likes of Jonny Gray in there against him but he will have to be watched very closely.
‘Although Australia beat Fiji a couple of years ago, Fiji will be tough to beat at home and it is a match I am looking forward to.
‘By the way I am very excited about the future for Scotland under Gregor Townsend.
‘I can see him bringing that winning mentality into Scotland. Judging by that first win over Italy and the way they played, it was really fast. The tempo was unreal.
‘Yup, I am looking forward to watching Scotland from Australia.’