Pari Pari Matua Parkinson (born 12 September 1996) is a

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who plays for in the

Bunnings NPC Bunnings Group Limited, trading as Bunnings Warehouse or Bunnings, is an Australian household hardware chain. The chain has been owned by Wesfarmers since 1994, and has stores in Australia and New Zealand. Bunnings was founded in Perth, Wester ...

and the in

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

. His position of choice is

Lock Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

School and domestic rugby career

Parkinson was educated at

Saint Kentigern College Saint Kentigern College is a private co-educational Presbyterian secondary school in the suburb of Pakuranga on the eastern side of Auckland, New Zealand, beside the Tamaki Estuary. It is operated by the Saint Kentigern Trust Board which also ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, before relocating to

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

to join the

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...

Academy and play for club team Stoke. He had an early taste of

when he played four minutes for the Crusaders top side in a practice match against the Highlanders in

Oamaru Oamaru (; mi, Te Oha-a-Maru) is the largest town in North Otago, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is the main town in the Waitaki District. It is south of Timaru and north of Dunedin on the Pacific coast; State Highway 1 and the railway ...

in 2016, at 19 years of age. Parkison joined the

Tasman Mako The Tasman Rugby Union is the governing body for rugby union in Tasman Bay / Te Tai-o-Aorere, a bay at the north end of the South Island in New Zealand. Headquartered in Nelson, New Zealand, Nelson, TRU is New Zealand's newest provincial union, f ...

wider training group in 2016, having previously represented the New Zealand Barbarians Schools side. He made two appearances for Tasman in the

2016 Mitre 10 Cup The 2016 Mitre 10 Cup season was the eleventh season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on August 18, when North Harbour hosted Counties Manukau. It involved the ...

and was named in their squad for the

2017 Mitre 10 Cup The 2017 Mitre 10 Cup season was the twelfth season of New Zealand's provincial rugby union competition since it turned professional in 2006. The regular season began on August 17, when North Harbour hosted Otago. It involved the top fourteen ...

. Parkinson’s hard working attitude earned him a Super Rugby contract with the for the 2018 season, debuting against the Crusaders towards the end of the season. Parkinson was part of the team that won the 2019 Mitre 10 Cup for the first time. In 2020, Parkinson established himself as first choice lock for the Highlanders, during the Super Rugby Aotearoa competition, drawing praise for his performances and work rate. Parkinson missed the 2020 Mitre 10 Cup with injury as the Mako went on to win their second premiership title in a row. Parkinson played a key role for the Highlanders during the 2021 Super Rugby season as the side made the

Super Rugby Trans-Tasman Super Rugby Trans-Tasman (known as Harvey Norman Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in Australia and Sky Super Rugby Trans-Tasman in New Zealand) was a professional men's rugby union club competition in Australia and New Zealand. It featured the five S ...

final where they lost 23-15 to the . In Round 10 of the 2021 Bunnings NPC Parkinson suffered yet another injury while playing for Tasman against , ruling him out for the entire 2022 season. The Mako went on to make the premiership final before losing 23–20 to .

Māori All Blacks

In 2018, Parkinson was selected for the

Māori All Blacks The Māori All Blacks, previously called the New Zealand Maori, New Zealand Maoris and New Zealand Natives, are a rugby union team from New Zealand. They are a representative team of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and a prerequisite for playing i ...

tour of the US, Chile and Brazil, thus following in the footsteps of his uncle Matua Parkinson, who played for the side and also captained the

New Zealand Sevens The New Zealand national rugby sevens team competes in the World Rugby Sevens Series, Rugby World Cup Sevens, Summer Olympic Games and the Commonwealth Games. They have won a record twelve World Rugby Sevens Series titles. The team has been o ...

team. During the tour, he started all three games at 5 in what was a clean sweep, however, he was yellow carded in the match against the USA for a body slam on Eagles number 9 Shaun Davies. Parkinson represents his

iwi Iwi () are the largest social units in New Zealand Māori society. In Māori roughly means "people" or "nation", and is often translated as "tribe", or "a confederation of tribes". The word is both singular and plural in the Māori language, an ...

Te Whānau-ā-Apanui Te Whānau-ā-Apanui is a Māori iwi (Iwi is the Maori word for tribe) located in the eastern Bay of Plenty and East Coast regions of New Zealand's North Island. In 2006, the iwi registered 11,808 members, representing 13 hapū. History Early ...

, from the eastern

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runawa ...

and

East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...

regions of

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

. About his involvement in the Māori All Blacks, Parkinson said: ''"It was the icing on the cake of a pretty awesome Mitre 10 season"'' He also cited

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

as his favourite destination on the tour, because of the weather, the people and the training facilities, while also saying to be proud to be contributing to growing the sport around the world. Parkinson was named in the Māori All Blacks squad again in 2021 after missing out on the 2020 squad due to injury.

Style of play

From the position of lock, Parkinson stands out in the lineout and for his work around the park, using his big frame to carry the ball into defenders and setting teammates with his offloads. His dimensions made his Highlanders captain

Ash Dixon Ash Dixon (born 1 September 1988) is a New Zealand rugby union player, who currently plays as a hooker for Green Rockets Tokatsu in the Japan Rugby League One. He formerly played for the in Super Rugby and for in New Zealand's domestic Nat ...

label him as a "baby giraffe".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Parkinson, Pari Pari 1996 births Living people Highlanders (rugby union) players Māori All Blacks players New Zealand Māori rugby union players New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union locks Rugby union players from Whakatāne Tasman rugby union players