Hong Kong Scottish favourite Jack Parfitt remembers late father’s advice as he grabs London Scottish opportunity
- The 28-year-old forward thanks his family for holding the fort back home as he starts London exchange
- ‘Jack is still a massive part of us,’ says Hong Kong Scottish head coach Craig Hammond
Hong Kong national rugby player Jack Parfitt knew there was only one option when London Scottish came calling with an opportunity: seize it.
“Put it this way. I lost my dad [Wayne] last year. He always said to me and my brother and sister to go do all the things you want to do when you’re young, because when you have a partner and kids – or whatever it may be – you’re going to be a little more limited later in life. Playing rugby [overseas] is something I’ve always wanted to do and I thought, ‘stuff it, I’m going to do it now because if I don’t I’m never going to do it in my life’,” the 28-year-old former Bloomberg Hong Kong Scottish tight head prop said.
After racking up nearly a century of appearances for Scottish, Hong Kong-born Australian Parfitt was part of a player exchange last month with Welsh centre Dean Squire going the other way. Parfitt had spent preseason looking for different teams in Europe but the Scottish sister-club connection “worked out in the end”.
Parfitt is acclimatising to life in the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic – and preventive measures of which evidently could do with some tightening up.
“It’s a completely different mentality to Hong Kong, where when you’re at the airport you’re waiting to take your temperature and got your mask on and whatnot. There was none of that [in London] – it was like any normal day walking through,” Parfitt said.