Saints ace McParland explains how mindset shift set him up for 'very special' day

The scrum-half, who doesn't turn 21 until next month, has been handed some tough assignments during the formative stages of his Saints career.

Since making his senior debut as a 17-year-old (and 222 days) against London Irish in September 2022, becoming the youngest Saint of the professional era, McParland has started in tough Gallagher PREM away games against the likes of Bristol Bears, Leicester Tigers and Harlequins.

He has continued to improve each time a big match in enemy territory has come his way, but the performance he delivered at PREM champions Bath last month felt like a true coming-of-age moment.

McParland started and scored in a superb 41-21 success as Saints upset the odds at The Rec.

And the Birkenhead-born No.9 feels a change in the way he approached the match paid real dividends.

"It was very special," McParland said.

"We were written off so to be able to put out a performance where we got the result was an amazing feeling.

"To go to Bath, which is a hard place to win, with them top of the table at the time, it was an amazing feeling."

He added: "I've learned a lot. Whenever you play, if you make mistakes you learn from them.

"My mindset going into that game was just to fully back myself and really show what I can do.

"I've felt in the past I've sort of held back and not shown what I can do so going into that different mindset at Bath was much better for me."

The Saints coaches have put plenty of faith in McParland in recent seasons, showing how highly they rate him.

"I feel like you get a lot of confidence from training well, playing well and getting picked," he said.

"I've been given lots of feedback and stuff to get better at.

"My family has also helped me massively in giving me confidence to go and perform at the weekend."

McParland feels he has been able to develop a lot as he has progressed from Saints Academy player to regular first-team squad member.

He said: "I've learned tonnes.

"As a scrum-half, you get put in positions where a lot of mistakes can happen and you've got to learn that you do make tough mistakes.

"I've learned massive things from (Sam) Vesty and Sharpy (Jake Sharp). I've learned from them with my skills and playing the game and I've learned massively from training and also playing."

He added: "I only moved to scrum-half when I was 16 so basically throughout Covid I started making that transition.

"When I was younger, I was a fly-half/15 - there weren't really many positions when I was younger.

"Dan Carter was a massive inspiration for me. I read his autobiography and basically watched all his highlights on repeat. Also Mike Brown. They were both players I looked up to and used to base my game off.

"But then moving to nine, I used to watch a lot of (Antoine) Dupont because when I was 16, that was when he first came onto the scene. I've watched a lot of him and it's quite hard to base your game off him because he's so good but I look up to him now."

McParland has already earned England A selection, having previously impressed for the England Under-20s.

But the international action can wait for now as he puts his full focus on a massive Gallagher PREM match at Sale Sharks on Saturday evening (kick-off 5.30pm).

"It was a disappointing sort of performance (in the 43-28 win against Scarlets) last weekend," McParland said. "We got the result in the end but as a team, we're striving for a better performance.

"Looking at our past results at Sale, it's a place we've not won too much at so it's a massive result if we get it this weekend.

"We're going to go there knocking the door in.

"It (past results at Sale) is something we look at slightly but we're very much focused on our performance rather than the results.

"We've definitely seen what the results have been in the past, but all our focus is on our performance and what we can do to get that result."

McParland and Co will look to repeat their impressive showing against Bath to see off the Sharks.

And the scrum-half said: "It's a massive mindset thing going away.

"Rugby and sport as a whole is majority a mindset thing so we've got to go with the right mindset of wanting to put our game on the pitch rather than waiting to see what they're going to do.

"It fully depends on how we come at them this weekend with our mindset, and if we get that right, I'm sure we'll get the result."