Richard Bath: Ready for a kick in the Parks

Published on Saturday 3 October 2009 19:48

THERE ARE some rugby players, usually great players, who define a team. Naas Botha did it in South Africa, when the Blue Bulls of Northern Transvaal were completely built around his kicking game.

Lawrence Dallaglio did it with Wasps, his cussed nature allowing them to play a game built around pressure and aggression at the breakdown and in the tackle. Mid-1990s New Zealand were constructed almost entirely around the aim of unleashing Jonah Lomu.

Yet few teams have ever been more reliant on one player than Glasgow have been on Dan Parks since the little Aussie was lured to Hughenden from Eastern Suburbs, via a three-month trial with Leeds, by Kiwi Searancke back in 2003. Almost from day one, the Warriors have been the Dan Parks Show: when he plays well, the team plays well.

The degree to which his performance levels dictate the fortunes of the team are undeniable, and nowhere more so than when it comes to his kicking. Two seasons ago, when Glasgow finished fifth in the Magners League, their highest ever position, it was no coincidence that Parks' kicking stats showed an 80 per cent success rate.

Last year, when he suffered a crisis of confidence after being dropped from the Scotland team and being convicted of drink-driving, his stats dropped to 58 per cent and Glasgow's league position plummeted, the Warriors ending up seventh in the league and closer to bottom-placed Connacht than they were to second-placed Edinburgh. Had Parks replicated his kicking stats from the previous year, Glasgow would have ended the season in third place.

With almost 1,000 points to his credit over the past seven seasons, Parks is the Magners League's top points scorer by some distance, comfortably outscoring star performers like David Humphreys, Felipe Contepomi and Gavin Henson, while he has scored almost twice as many points as Chris Paterson. This season, he has found his kicking boots again, and if he carries on scoring at the same rate as he has for the first five games, he could even eclipse the 197 points he scored in 2006-7

Yet, as Cardiff demonstrated yesterday, Parks' presence isn't a win-win. The Welshmen always target the No.10 channel and down the years have become particularly adept at rolling over the top of the Glasgow pivot. If Parks can tackle, as he proved with a huge hit on the teak-tough Tongan centre Lifemi Mafi against Munster, he all too often chooses not to. His weak, flapping effort against the Ospreys, when he missed Tommy Bowe one-on-one for what turned out to be the match-winning try, was as vintage Parks as the 11 points from his boot which had put the home side in the driving seat.

The little stand-off is a double-edged sword for Glasgow. He has undeniable control and shape, is a good organiser and has one of the best kicking games in the Magners League, yet his tendency to sit back in the box is so marked that his style of play can become self-fulfilling, with the players around him ceding control and working on the basis that he will kick for position rather than looking for the pass.

More importantly, Parks' decision to stand so deep rather than to attack the gainline means he almost never breaks himself. That in turn means the threat of a hugely pacey Glasgow backline that includes the Evans brothers is blunted. If he has occasionally managed to temporarily overcome his natural tendency to sit in deep – as he did memorably for a run of games immediately after the 2008 Six Nations – then he always reverts to type, which is why, barring injuries to Phil Godman and Chris Paterson, you could happily put your mortgage on the 31-year-old failing to add to his tally of 47 caps for Scotland under Andy Robinson.