Land of my whānau: Parkes enjoys ride on red dragon

Hadleigh Parkes. Photo / Getty Images

With a raucous chuckle, Hadleigh Parkes declares that Wales head coach Wayne Pivac is his father, predecessor Warren Gatland his uncle and Scarlets head coach Brad Mooar his brother. It reveals two things: the typically dry Kiwi humour with which Parkes — now firmly established as one of the totems in a Wales side with designs on a second successive Six Nations Grand Slam — treats most things in life, and the extent to which Kiwi culture has been transplanted on to Welsh rugby.

The promotion of overseas stars ahead of local-born talent can be a touchy subject, but not in Wales, where the rugby public have grown used to Southern Hemisphere accents. It helps explain why there was barely a murmur of discontent when Pivac, his stock sky-high from a successful tenure at Scarlets, was announced as Gatland's successor in July 2018.

Parkes, 32, certainly did not need to be convinced of his talents. They first worked together in the early 2010s at Auckland's provincial side, first when Pivac was in charge of the sevens and subsequently the XVs, before moving to Scarlets with him in 2014. Three years later, his form in west Wales resulted in a call-up from Gatland for the national side.

However, it is Mooar who arguably has shaped Parkes' career the most, with the coach giving the centre his first taste of European rugby on a pre-season tour to Madrid with Christchurch FC.

"Brad was my first club coach when I went to Christchurch," Parkes says. "He was a partner in a law firm and then started getting into agency. He became my first agent, and when he got into the coaching side of things, he had to give up the agency. We have always had a good relationship. Some of the boys give me s*** that he's like my brother.

"Then Wayne gave me great opportunities. He is such a good team man, encourages you to play hard but to celebrate success at the same time. I guess you can say Wayne is my dad, Warren is my uncle and Brad is my brother. So it's not what you know, it's who you know."

Parkes is clearly conscious of being an import but, as with Gatland, his adoption of Wales as his homeland has been a serious business, right down to heeding Gatland's advice to ensure he had Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau/ Land of My Fathers down pat before his first test in 2017.

"I spoke to Warren about it a few times and he said, 'One thing I would advise you to do is to learn the anthem' and I said I was already learning it. It was great he had my back there.

"I had been given this amazing opportunity and I felt the least I could do to repay the people of Wales was learning their anthem. Rhys Patchell was very helpful in that."

There is another laugh.

"The Welsh would say Rhys was class in helping me. I recorded him doing each sentence one by one, so I could listen to it. He did the whole first verse and second verse, sentence by sentence. I had a flight from here to Dubai as I had to go back to New Zealand for my brother's wedding. I learnt it on that flight; I think some people on that flight may have looked at me a bit differently with my headphones on singing in Welsh. I managed to get it down, anyway."

Parkes' diligence is evident in his rugby, too. Since breaking into the Wales side, he has been integral, helping secure last year's Grand Slam and then playing in every game of Wales' run to the World Cup semifinals, where they were edged out by eventual champions South Africa.

Indeed, since 2018, no other Wales player has had more starts, played more minutes or made more carries for Wales. He was influential once again in last weekend's trouncing of Italy, and will be expected to carry the fight to Ireland in tomorrow's tussle in Dublin.

All that was a distant dream when he first got the call from Pivac to move to Scarlets. Then, his priority was seeing Europe and ensuring his then partner, now wife, Suzy could work as an accountant.

"My goals were to just come over and do well. It was a 2-year contract I first signed with the Scarlets. I wanted to enjoy it, I didn't have massive goals. A big part of it was about seeing what the UK and Europe had to offer."

Parkes concedes that his relaxed personality has helped him cope with what he describes as a "whirlwind" in the past 18 months.

In that time, he and Suzy have also welcomed their first child, a daughter called Ruby Eira. The timing of Ruby Eira's arrival put her father under some pressure.

"We arrived back on the Monday after the World Cup and Ruby was born on the Wednesday. It was a bit tight. She was two weeks early.

"I don't get fazed by too much. It is a pretty good way to be. But the birth of my daughter was pretty tough. It was quite hard to watch what my wife was going through and having my daughter in my arms for the first time. Before that, the hardest thing was my Wales debut. It was a busy 18 months. I got married, won a Grand Slam in the Six Nations and found out halfway through the Six Nations that we were having a child.

"Because so much was going on, it occasionally went to the back of my mind. Suzy was extremely good with what was a dream to be going to a World Cup. I arrived back, it hit home we were having a baby and then Ruby arrived. It really was a whirlwind."

There is another chuckle.

Parkes' life may be on fast-forward but he is clearly determined to relish every moment.