‘I’m loving it here’: Corkman Rory Parata relishing Cornish Pirates’ famous victory over Saracens

Rory Parata’s rugby career has taken him from Sunday’s Well via Connacht and Zebre to Cornish Pirates

Tue, 16 Mar, 2021 - 07:00

Simon Lewis

It’s funny the places life takes you and wonderful if you see the world through Rory Parata’s eyes. Born in Sydney to an Irish mother and father from New Zealand, raised in Passage West, County Cork, the 26-year-old’s rugby career has taken him from Sunday’s Well via Connacht and Zebre to Penzance and the upwardly mobile Cornish Pirates.

The Green King IPA Championship, England’s second tier, is littered with young Irishmen like Parata, unable to break into their provincial first teams at home but able to keep playing professionally and retaining ambitions of reaching the highest levels.

Fortune took the former Rockwell College student back to the beautiful and rugged Cornish coastline in 2017/18 and Parata has not looked back, progressing his game as a regular starter at centre in an improving team that marked the delayed start to 2020/21 with a famous 25-17 win at home to the newly demoted Saracens on March 6.

Another win, on the road at Richmond last Saturday, has bolstered the strong start and optimism that the Pirates are in a good place to kick on again this season having been placed third when the 2019/20 campaign was brought to a sudden halt 12 months ago by the Covid-19 lockdown.

Parata is loving life, sharing an apartment in Penzance with his girlfriend Adrienne, from Mullingar, and a golden cocker spaniel puppy called Bailey. The only downside is not being able to get home to Cork and his parents in Passage West, Annette and Robert.

“Loving it, loving it over here,” he told the Irish Examiner. “It’s very different. This is my third year here in Penzance and in the summer with the weather it’s like you’re in the south of Spain sometimes.

“The beaches are amazing too and I’m not into surfing but my dad, he’s mad into it, he’s from New Zealand and I’m pretty sure he represented Ireland in an over-50s kneeboarding competition a few years ago, so he’ll try and get over when everything gets normal again.”

Parata was nine when his family left Sydney for Cork. He had played rugby league as a small boy in Australia, full contact from a very early age, so adjusting to touch rugby union was a frustrating process initially. He was also playing Gaelic football and soccer in Passage but after a short stint with Dolphin, Parata crossed Musgrave Park and joined Sunday’s Well.

The rugby continued when he went to Rockwell College to do his Leaving Cert, playing Munster Senior Schools Cup but losing the final to Crescent. It earned him a place in the Connacht academy and Ireland Under-19 recognition followed, with Caolin Blade, Peter Robb, Rory O’Loughlin, and Jack O’Donoghue also among the class of 2013.

Another of that year’s crop, full-back David Johnston, is now a rival at fellow frontrunners Ealing Trailfinders, who are due to visit Mennaye Field next month in what could be a top-of-the-table clash if things stay as they are. Parata said the Pirates were determined not to let the Saracens win go down as a flash in the pan.

“We were saying all week, there was no point in winning against Saracens if we don’t back it up.”

All the more remarkable was that it was just their second game back after almost a year without a match, with the professional squad placed on furlough as Championship clubs were classed by the government in the same bracket as grassroots amateurs.

Parata had played just 40 minutes of rugby in a year, in a friendly against Jersey Reds, ahead of the Saracens game but said: “The main thing that’s helped us is we’ve pretty much retained players so over the last two years it’s been just refining what we do rather than teach people to do new things. So as soon as we were allowed to come back training it was just picking up where we left off.

“Consistency is one of the keys to the Championship. I think any team on any day can beat you but we were third in the table when last season got stopped, so we knew we had a good team.

“Everything around this club is built for moving forward and I’ve seen progression every year since I’ve been here. Just closing that gap between that team that comes down from the Premiership is the aim every year. Ealing have heavily invested in their squad and at the start of the year everyone would have said Saracens and Ealing will be the main two but we definitely think we’re up there as well.”

It would be some achievement to stay the course, not least due to every away trip being akin to a long-haul flight.

“I remember my first game, we played Hartpury away (near Gloucester), got on the bus and the lads were like, this is our shortest journey, and I’m pretty sure it took us about six hours.

“It’s the longest trip back home if you lose but not as dark if you win.”

Public health regulations have even denied the Pirates their customary overnight pre-game stop in Bristol to break up the journey. Now the squad travels on two buses, masks on, seated apart, and straight to the opposition’s hometown. It usually means an 8am departure on the day before the game and Parata said: “When we’ve played Doncaster or Newcastle I’ve watched three movies in one trip.

“And before lockdown, one of the guys, (centre) Callum Patterson got a flight home to Belfast after a game in London. He sent me a text to say he was home and we were still on the bus back to Penzance, just passing Bristol.”

Not that Parata would swap many places for Penzance in a hurry.

“I was sitting on the beach yesterday with my girlfriend, walking my dog and we said how lucky we were to be in one of the most beautiful parts of the UK, definitely.

“I think every player who plays in the Championship wouldn’t lie that they want to go and play in the Premiership but if I could do it playing with the Pirates that would be even better.”