Vesty hails McParland's 'full mindset change' as Saints ace continues to shine

The 21-year-old is enjoying a superb breakthrough campaign with the black, green and gold, and on Monday afternoon he was called up to England's latest training squad.

It followed McParland's man-of-the-match performance against Bristol Bears on Friday night as Saints ran riot in the 94-33 evisceration at cinch Stadium at Franklin's Gardens.

And when asked about McParland's development this season, Vesty said: "He would tell you himself that he was always trying to be a bit perfect and trying to do everything to please a coach or do it perfectly. If you live in that world, you're just never going to succeed.

"He threw the shackles off, said 'I'm going to live in a grey world, live in all that grey' and that's exactly where we want him. You can see him flourish from that.

"It's been a full mindset change and it's been impressive to watch."

McParland has been so good of late that he was given the chance to start ahead of British & Irish Lions star Alex Mitchell, who came off the bench against Bristol last Friday.

And Vesty knows that competition at scrum-half can only be a good thing for Saints, who also have Tom James and England Under-20s ace Jonny Weimann in their squad.

"Mitch is such a laid-back character but we all know he's very competitive as well," Vesty said.

"He'll want that jersey and Archie's putting his hand up saying 'I want that jersey' and that can only be a good thing."

Discussing how Saints coach their nines, Vesty explained: "Get the ball up as fast as you can and play as square as you can. That's the only thing I think I've ever said to Mitch and Archie and all our nines really.

"They're in the toughest position on the pitch because they have all the touches so if you have a confident guy who's getting that ball up fast, yes he's going to make the odd mistake, but he's also going to do a lot of good stuff.

"If you've got a guy there questioning what they should be doing or trying to do it slow, it's very hard to get the attack going.

"It's about getting the ball up, we know they're going to make a few mistakes but they'll do plenty of good stuff with that."