Parks a steady influence on Connacht's young guns

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2012/1211/1224327729828.html

Was reading this and though Parks must be enjoying his rugby more now than over the last few years.

He's a player thats seamed to get a lot of stick here and elsewhere, and was much maligned by Cardiff Blues fans, but he's gone to Connacht, and seams to be really appreicated for what he does and brings to the team.

It appears now that the move from Cardiff to Galway wasn't a step backwards that we at first though, but a step side ways.

Poor man's ROG is how I always described Parks, but Munster fans loved ROG, Parks never got the same, till now maybe?

Parks was disliked because he never put his body on the line. ROG is a terrible tackler, but he doesnt shirk them. He gets steamrolled, gets back onto his feet and ready to make another. Parks goes entire games without making contact with anybody at all. Entire teams defensive systems have to be based around him to hide him from attackers, yet hes not a small guy. He has the physique to be an adequate tackler, and on the rare ocasions hes ever been forced to make one, he sometimes does an alright job of it.

But the worst part for me, is the pretend "lunges" he makes as an excuse for a tackle. If you see him do it, theres not an ounce of commitment in it, and you know he didnt actually intend to get himself mucky.

Prks was very good at following a game plan that suited him i.e. one where he was playing for position and where he had his back-row doing his tackling for him. When he was good, he was actually very good (remember 2 or 3 MOM awards in one 6N campaign) but when the opposition got to him, he went to pieces.
Depending on who he was playing against, he was the only guy who could leave the pitch with the inside of his shorts dirtier than the outside.

Kingshu wrote:
Poor man's ROG is how I always described Parks, but Munster fans loved ROG, Parks never got the same, till now maybe?

A little bit unfair there. Parks was held in high regard by Glasgow Warriors players, management and supporting fan base. Tackling may not have been his forte, but he could almost single handedly control a game. Recently, a fair few GW fans have been pointing out games lost that could have been won if Parks had still been there.

Parks rather easily assumed the mantle of pantomime villian by the end of his tenure with Scotland and whilst it is true to say that he had a very limited skillset - what he was able to do was to control territory and crack over the goals. Given Scotland's granite pack of the past few years and the (now, bewilderingly, completely feiced) excellent defence, that was actually enough to win some games (against the Wallabies and Boks amongst others).

It's not surprising in the slightest that he is enjoying his rugby at Connacht. Parks is a temperament player and if he's feeling the love, he plays well. If he isn't, then he doesn't. This was the major problem at Cardiff - plenty of fans made it abundantly clear from the start that they didn't want him there.

I think at Galway they leave him alone and let him be himself.

Besides, I've been to Galway city and Sligo and had a mad time with the lassies there.

Naughty, naughty, Mr C
Dan the man has previous. Remember he got done for being totally Lillian Gished behind the wheel of a car. Joking aside, I think that may have accelerated his departure from Glasgow

True, Injured. I think at the time we all mentioned that if DP wanted to go to work hammered, he should have become an airline pilot.