This season, McParland has been all-action, all the time, putting himself firmly in England’s sights for the squad for the Nations Championship. “He is a nine who makes things happens,” Vesty said. “He has definitely put his hand up to be in the mix and I know his name is being talked about because I speak to the England coaches. He is playing such good rugby at the moment that I would be surprised if he is not in that mix.”
Northampton have always been something of a scrum-half factory, dating back to the time of Dickie Jeeps and Jacko Page through to Matt Dawson and now Alex Mitchell, the present England No 9. At 6ft and 13st 7lb, McParland is bigger than most scrum-halves and grew up playing at fly-half. It was only when he was aged 16 that Will Parkin, his academy coach, suggested a change of positions. It proved to be opportune timing at the start of the Covid pandemic. While some people chanced their arm at a bit of sourdough in lockdown, McParland learnt to re-engineer his pass with the assistance of his parents, Dominic and Emma, in their garden in Cheshire.
“That lockdown period was massive for me to get my skills from being a fly-half to being a scrum-half because the passing and kicking are very different technically,” said McParland who was in the same Stowe School team as Henry Pollock. “As a fly-half, you learn to pass it square on. For a nine with Sam Vesty and how he wants us to pass as nines, there is a massive variety in terms of where your feet are positioned, where you are passing from – it is just so different. It was the perfect time. Being in lockdown, I had nothing else to do. I did two passing sessions a day with my parents wearing garden gloves to save their hands.”