There is no doubt that Archie McParland has been enjoying his time in a Northampton Saints shirt of late, with his most recent outing seeing him claim a man-of-the-match award in Saints’ 40-24 PREM Rugby Cup victory over Harlequins.
The 20-year-old scrum-half’s rich vein of form has seen him score five tries in his last two games – including a hat-trick at Twickenham Stoop on Friday night that sparked Saints’ comeback from a 19-0 deficit to take home their bonus point win.
It was a win that propelled Northampton up to second in the Pool B standings, a place they must remain if they want to progress to the knock-out stages of the competition.
“We’re very satisfied,” McParland said after Saints’ fourth Cup victory of the season.
“We’ve been taking each game as it comes and have a real focus on what we want to do in that game.
“I thought in the first half we were way off it in terms of what we wanted to go after but then going into the second half, we really dug deep and got the result so we're really happy with that.”
McParland has featured in 12 of Saints’ matches so far this term, already just three short of equalling his total from last term where he played his most rugby in a season to date.
It has been something of a breakthrough campaign for the scrum-half that has seen him feature across the Gallagher PREM, Investec Champions Cup and PREM Rugby Cup competitions, and play a pivotal role in several Saints wins.
But, for McParland, it is a consistent run of games throughout this PRC period that he is reaping the benefits from.
“I’ve been working hard on my game and this competition is great for getting minutes under your belt,” McParland said.
“To be able to get in some good minutes and implement things I’ve been working on in training is great.
“The fact that this competition sees a lot of younger players feature and people making debuts, you’ve got to really step up in terms of that leadership role too. It’s a different challenge.”
He added: “For me it’s just about getting game time.
“I was out injured last season and in the year before didn’t get too many minutes so it’s about trying to get as much game time as possible.
“This competition is great to get those minutes. I’m just taking each game and training session as it comes and trying to get better.”