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Marcelle Parkes returns to the Black Ferns: 'The nature of a prop is changing'
It started as a joke but now it’s serious. Marcelle Parkes has been contracted to the Black Ferns as a loosehead prop.
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The 26-year-old played five Tests for the Black Ferns between 2018 and 2019. She was last contracted in 2020 as a loose forward.
“Whitney Hansen joked about moving to the front row in the FPC. Initially, my response was, ‘Are you serious.’ Slowly the idea evolved, and I started training at prop,” Parkes told RugbyPass.
“In September 2023 I was selected for the Black Ferns XV as a prop, but I got injured before the Manusina match.
“It’s been a crazy half year getting up to speed. When I decided to give it a genuine shot most of my summer was spent training.
“My first official match as a prop was for Matatu in the pre-season of Aupiki. We got beaten 34-33 by Hurricanes Poua. I had to mark my friend and former Black Fern Leilani Perese, a really tough opponent.”
Parkes made four appearances off the bench for Matatu during the Aupiki season proper. She missed both encounters with Chiefs Manawa, but her last appearance was a winning one against Hurricanes Poua (37-17). She was competitive in two narrow defeats to eventual champions the Blues.
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“We didn’t have the season we hoped for missing the final, but we maintained the strong connections built in the past and finished positively with two wins. I’m sure if the season had gone longer, we would have had more of an impact,” Parkes said.
“The biggest learning curve was the scrum and the different techniques, challenges, skills, and muscles involved with that.
“Lifting in the lineout wasn’t such a challenge as I had experience with that before at a loose forward.
“The nature of a prop is changing. It’s no longer a position where you just tick the scrumming box, though that’s essential. The ability to move around the field, make aggressive tackles, and carry strongly is all part of it.”
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Parkes’s conversion is not without precedent. Canterbury teammate Lucy Anderson switched from loose forward to prop and was capped in 2022. Regina Sheck started her rugby career as a rampaging No.8 before winning the Rugby World Cup as a prop in 1998 and 2002.
England’s Poppy Cleall featured in 29 of England’s world record 30 consecutive Test victories between 2019 and 2022. Cleall has played loose forward and prop.
Perhaps the most famous loose forward to prop conversion was Casey Caldwell (nee Roberston). She swapped from No.8 to prop for the Black Ferns 2002 World Cup and played in 14 successive Test wins thereafter.
“Casey did a jersey presentation over Zoom I was part of one time. She was one of the hardest ladies going, no one messed with her. She’s undoubtedly an inspiration,” Parkes said.
In addition to the foresight of Hansen, a 2021 Rugby World Cup-winning assistant coach, Parkes is receiving tuition from Dan Cron, the son of Mike Cron, arguably the foremost scrum coach in the world.
Like his father, Dan has dedicated his rugby career to mastering the ‘dark arts.’ In 2005 Dan helped the Black Ferns win the Churchill Cup and returned for the 2010 Rugby World Cup success.
Between 2008 and 2022 he coached 224 Super Rugby games with the Blues and the Hurricanes. With the Hurricanes he made six consecutive playoff appearances and helped the Hurricanes win their inaugural Super Rugby title in 2016.
Cron has assisted Tonga and Samoa and coached professionally in Japan. In 2023 he helped Matatu win Super Rugby Aupiki. A mantra Cron abides by is: “Fitness makes a coward out of everyone.” In other words, “If you’re buggered, you’re useless.”
Another mentor for Parkes is her boyfriend of five years, Hurricanes loosehead prop Xavier Numia. Numia has been in imperious form for the unbeaten Super Rugby Pacific leaders.
“Xavier and I try to avoid rugby chat when we’re together but we love it and with me changing into his position we’ve had candle-lit dinners talking about scrums,” Parkes laughed.
“Xavier’s got a lot of knowledge and experience so I’m always picking his brain for whatever titbits I can get.”
A New Zealand age group netball and softball representative, Parkes started playing Sevens in 2015 to keep fit in the summer.
Parkes’s natural athleticism was tailor-made for Sevens, and when she first featured for Wellington at the National Sevens in January 2018 she was immediately earmarked for greater things.
On May 22, 2018, the first-ever group of 28 players awarded professional contracts for the Black Ferns was announced. The landmark arrangement included a guaranteed retainer, assembly fees, and a range of other benefits. Parkes was one of two Wellington players selected, along with Dhys Faleafaga.
Four days later she made her senior club debut for Marist St Pats against an Oriental-Rongotai side featuring a dozen Wellington Pride representatives. Parkes played centre and scored a try in a 22-36 defeat.
Parkes made eight appearances for Wellington. In 2021 she relocated to Christchurch. In 2022 she helped Canterbury win a Farah Palmer Cup Premiership and last year captained Canterbury. She was part of the Matat? Super Rugby Aupiki winning team in 2023.
The Black Ferns squad for the Pacific Four Series is announced in Taupo on April 30. The first Test match is against the USA at FMG Stadium in Hamilton on May 11.
Comments on RugbyPass
I am really looking forward to Leigh Halfpenny playing his first Super rugby game for the Crusaders Playing a long side his former Welsh and Scarlets team mate Johnny McNicoll.Johnny has been playing great, back in a Crusaders jersey.The attack has strengthened big time. Also looking forward to David Havili at 10. David is a class act, it also allows Dallas McLeod to remain at 12. A good thing.
1 Go to commentsIf he had stopped insisting on playing in the backrow, instead of wing, where everyone told him he should, he would have been a Bok years ago….
11 Go to comments‘Salads don’t win scrums’ 😂 I love that.
19 Go to commentsCan’t wait for the article that talks about misogyny in Ireland. Somehow.
16 Go to commentsI would like to see a rule change, when the attacking team is held up over the try line, by allowing the defensive team to restart a goal line drop out releases the pressure for the defensive team, but what if the attacking team had to restart a tap 5m out from the defensive team it gives the attacking team to apply more pressure, there are endless options for the attacking side and it will keep the fans in suspence.
2 Go to commentsLess modern South African males predictably triggered.
16 Go to commentsMy heart is with Quins, but the head is convinced Toulouse have too much. Ntamack is back, his timing and wisdom has been missed.
1 Go to commentsWow, what a starting line up for the Sharks) Tasty up front,kremer vs Tshituka or venter …fiery ,,Lavannini ,,will he knobble etzebeth? Biggest game for belleau?
1 Go to commentsIt was rubbish to watch, Blues weren’t even present. Did what they had to do, nothing more. Should be better next week against canes.
1 Go to commentsI’ve just noticed that this match has an all-French refereeing team. Surely a game like this ought to have a neutral ref? Although looking at the BBC preview of the Saints game, Raynal is also down as reffing that - so there may be some confusion about who is reffing what.
1 Go to commentsIf Havili can play anywhere in the back line, why not first 5. #10.
11 Go to commentsThe dressing room had already left for their summer break before they ran out in Dublin that year, and that’s on the coach. Franco Smith has undoubtedly made progress, particularly their maul, developing squad players and increasing squad depth. And against a very tight budget too. That said they were too lightweight last year and got found out against both Toulon and Munster in consecutive games. Better this season so far but they’ve developed something of a slow start habit occasionally, most notably losing at home to Northampton who played them at their own game. Play offs will ultimately show whether there has been tangible progress on last year, or not…!
2 Go to commentsAustralian Rugby has been a disaster, by not incorporating learning from previous successful campaigns. QLD Reds 2011 - Waratahs 2014. Players, coaches and administrators appoint there representatives for scheduled meetings, organisation’s agreement’s assessments and correspondence. This why a unified Rugby Union under one entity works. Every Rugby nation has taken that path. Was most difficult in the Northern hemisphere with over 100 years of club rugby before the game become professional. Took a lot of humility for those unions to eventually work together.
7 Go to commentsThough Wilson’s sacking was pretty brutal, it wasn’t just down to that Leinster game; Glasgow had a lot of 2nd half collapses that season, in the URC and Europe, and only just scraped into the playoffs. Franco Smith has definitely been an improvement, some players are delivering far more than they did under Wilson.
2 Go to commentsjesus - that front 5!
1 Go to commentsShould be an absolute cracker of a game! Will be great to see DuPont & Ntamack in tandem once again🔥
1 Go to commentsBest team ever…. To have played? These guys are still pressure chokers. Came nowhere when it counted. What a joke
84 Go to commentsMusk defends anonymous terrorism, fascism, threats against individuals and children etc etc But a Rugby club account….lock ‘em up!!!
2 Go to commentsActually the era defining moment came a few years earlier. February 2002 to be precise, when Michael D Higgins as finance minister at the time introduced his sports persons tax relief bill to the dial. As the politicians of the day stated “It seems to be another daft K Club frolic born in Kildare amongst the well-paid professional jockeys with whom the Minister plays golf” and that the scheme represented “a savage uncaring vision of Ireland and one that should be condemned”. The irfu and Leinster would be nowhere near the position they are in today without this key component of the finances.
5 Go to commentsIt is crystal clear that people who make such threats on line should be tried and imprisoned. Those with responsibility in social media companies who don’t facilitate this should be convicted. In real life, I have free speech to approach someone like Reinach and verbally threaten him. I am risking a conviction or a slap but I could do it. In the old days, If someone anonymously threatened someone by letter the police would ask and use evidence from the postal system. Unlike the Post, social media companies have complete instant and legal access to the content in social media. They make money from the data, billions. Yet, they turn a blind eye to terrorism, Nazi-ism and industrial levels of threats against individuals including their address and childrens schools being published online all from ananoymous accounts not real people. They claim free speech. Free speech for anonymous trolls/voilent thugs threatening people under false names? The fault is with the perps but also social media companies who think anonymous personas posting death threats constitutes free speech.
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