Parks reflects on difficult season

The Australian-born Scotland fly-half made the switch from Glasgow to the Cardiff City Stadium riding a career high.

He had helped the Firhill outfit to the Magners League play-offs, won three Man of the Match awards during the 2010 RBS 6 Nations and kicked Scotland to a famous Test series victory over Argentina.

But he has endured a difficult debut season in south Wales. He did end up as the regions' leading points-scorer but has failed to get the Blues back line running on full cylinders.

"It's been a settling-in type of year for me, which is obviously not what you want," Parks told the South Wales Echo.
"You'd want to come in and be able to jump straight in. It hasn't worked out that way.

"Obviously there have been some good days, but there have been some disappointing ones as well.

"Hopefully my form will pick up next year, but it is quite difficult when you move clubs, especially after being somewhere for so long.

"I was at Glasgow for a long time. It took me a while to find my feet there. It's just one of those things.

"I was there for seven years and in the end I loved the place and the team almost adapted to the way I played, which was fantastic and suited me down to the ground.

"It's obviously been a settling-in period for me here at the Blues, but in the last couple of months I've got to know the guys more and more and hopefully next year can be better.

"I've enjoyed it here. I get along with all the guys and it's good fun.

"I love it in Cardiff. It's a great place. It's obviously a lot smaller than Glasgow. It's a bit of a goldfish bowl and there's a lot of scrutiny, but that's all part of it as well.

"I get recognised more here than I did in Glasgow, but that's just the way it is.

"It's a case of mixed feelings looking back at my first year, but looking forward to the second one. It's just a case now of picking things up for next year and moving forward."

Parks admits the Blues' failure to reach the Magners League play-offs was a huge blow to the region.

"We targeted the Magners and it was looking quite good there for a while," added Parks.

"But it's 20-odd rounds and you've got to play well every week and that showed in the end. We had two chances at the end, against the Dragons and the Scarlets.

"We had to get one win and, as it turned out, we couldn't do it and we are obviously very disappointed not to be in the semi-finals.

"But these are things you have to learn from and hopefully as a team we can learn from this and move forward.

"It's been a difficult year for us, but I'm sure we'll bounce back well next season."