Rugby: Hard yards a great kick-off

By CHRIS RATTUE

North Harbour v Otago

As crash courses go, it was one of the best.

Matua Parkinson, budding rugby union player, was lured to Australian rugby league by the Canterbury Bulldogs three years ago.

After spotting him in a rugby sevens tournament, the club's chief executive, Bob Hagan, and legendary father figure, the late Peter Moore, turned up unannounced to watch Parkinson in a North Harbour club game - and signed him.

Which threw Parkinson into a hard-nosed football club built on the ruthless approach of their infamous trainer Billy Johnstone.

An example - try this for a training session.

Twenty minutes each on an exercycle, rowing machine and stairwalker, followed by an hour-long weightlifting session and 9km run.

And that was before lunch. Parkinson would then head home and sleep like a baby before heading to the afternoon session. And that was just in the mid-season.

Parkinson draws a deep breath before recounting even more rugged pre-season sessions on sand dunes and around a hilly course, near a mental institution, known as the Mad House.

"There were some big, tough, grown men there. And there were some tears spilt," the North Harbour, Hurricanes, New Zealand A and Maori openside flanker says.

But beyond the physical grind, Parkinson says his time with the Bulldogs taught great lessons about professional sport.

There were fines for late arrivals at trainings - one bloke was docked $100 a minute when he was five minutes late - but money was not the real issue.

"It gave me a great insight. Everyone was there half an hour before training and strapped and ready five minutes before the sessions. It was all about showing respect to the team and to the trainers."

Parkinson comes from a union background. His uncle, Mike Parkinson, from Poverty Bay, was an All Blacks midfield back in the 1970s. His older brother Reuben played for Otago and the Highlanders before heading to Japan, and cousin Dan is also a representative wing.

Raised in Te Kaha, on the eastern shoreline of Bay of Plenty, Matua headed North Harbour's way because his cousin Glen Osborne, the former All Black now playing in Europe, was there.

The 25-year-old Parkinson's flirtation with rugby league ended controversially when, after a reserve-grade grand final, he failed to turn up for a judicial hearing. Parkinson opted for a team win-bonus holiday in Bali instead, his last act with the club.

Bulldogs football manager Garry Hughes says: "Matua left on good terms here. He played a couple of first-grade games and impressed us ... he could really have gone somewhere. But union had gone professional and we couldn't match what they could pay him at the time."

When he returned to New Zealand after the 1998 rugby league season, Parkinson played in the North Harbour rugby sevens side, then made the national squad. He signed a New Zealand Rugby Football Union contract after telling the Bulldogs he wanted to represent his country.

After being selected this year in the New Zealand A side he might be close to All Black selection - which could bring those famous Parkinson dreadlocks on to the international scene.

His hair grows naturally into the dread style, and Parkinson let it grow as a rebel act after leaving St Stephens College, where the barber was known as Nick the Butcher.

The dreadlocks have disappeared once, when his Bulldogs reserve grade team mates took him up on a promise to shave his hair off if they won the grand final.

As they celebrated, Parkinson sat in horror in the dressing room, dreadlocks in hands.

"My mother told me never to let anyone touch my hair again. It is tapu," he says.

But the incident had a touching sequel.

While sitting in Hagan's office after quitting the club, the chief executive opened a drawer and pulled out an envelope with six of Parkinson's dreadlocks in it.

"He said, 'I'll keep them until you come back,"'says Parkinson.