The New Zealand-born centre earned 29 caps for Wales and won a Grand Slam, as well as lifting the Pro 14 title with the Scarlets
Former Wales international Hadleigh Parkes has officially confirmed he has retired from professional rugby and started a totally different new job outside of the sport.
The New Zealand-born centre won 29 caps for Wales after moving across the world to join the Scarlets in 2014, winning the Pro 14 title with the region in 2017. He made his international debut later that year, winning the Grand Slam in 2019 before representing Warren Gatland’s side at the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
Parkes left Wales in 2020 to join Japanese side Panasonic Wild Knights, spending two seasons with the team before playing two more with Black Rams Tokyo. Last year, he represented Manawatu Turbos in the National Provincial Championship and recently moved back to his native Auckland to rejoin amateur side Grammar TEC, who he last played for back in 2014.
Now 38, the former Scarlets powerhouse has confirmed that his days of professional rugby are over and he is ready to get stuck into a brand new challenge outside of rugby, having landed a new job with a civil engineering firm.
It follows the birth of his fourth child with wife Suzy earlier this year.
“Yeah, they’re hung up professionally,” he said when asked if he had officially hung up his boots during an appearance on the What A Lad podcast with former Hurricanes and London Irish star James Marshall, which was recorded earlier this year.
“I had a club season this year with my old club, G-TEC. I’d always wanted to, I just wanted to enjoy the game. If you leave the game on your terms, you’re pretty lucky. Obviously, you don’t want to be bitter about the game when you finish, and so I just wanted to go out there and enjoy rugby for what it was.
“I enjoyed the club season and I was actually a stay at home dad for the last eight months as well, which has been pretty cool, being that guy, having that time with your kids, taking them to school,” the father-of-four added as he reflected on life in retirement.
“We’re pretty lucky, we can walk to school and then it’s a few flat whites, bit of gardening, I love my veggie garden and I’ve had to chop a few trees down and stuff.
“I love cooking and my wife enjoys that I do the cooking, but she’s now home on maternity leave and we’re kind of on top of each other a little bit at the moment, so might be time to get a proper job!”
When asked what the future now holds for him, Parkes replied: “I’m starting with a civil engineering firm, earthworks, called Hicks Bros, in an operations assistant kind of role.
“It will be interesting, it’s a completely new learning curve for me, I don’t have that degree. But, you know, an opportunity came up and you can’t sit at home for the next 20 years can you?
“You’ve got to start at the bottom and just be open to learning and try and see how it all goes,” he added. “Hopefully, it will be good fun.”
It comes after Parkes reunited with fellow former Wales international Willis Halaholo in New Zealand earlier this year, as his Grammar Tec side met the former Cardiff star’s Suburbs side in the Auckland Club Rugby Premier Men’s Division 1 back in April.
On seeing his fellow centre again, the ex-Scarlets man said: “It’s awesome to see [Halaholo] back playing club footy as well, giving back to the community and Auckland club rugby. It’s a good competition and it’s awesome that people are out there having a run around.”
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