Cardiff coach Dai Young has warned new recruit Dan Parks he faces a battle for the No. 10 shirt this season – but has backed the Scottish fly-half to prove his worth in the Welsh cauldron.
The 32-year-old made his move from Glasgow Warriors to the Blues after signing a two-year deal at the back end of last season and will be the first Scot to don the Cardiff jersey.
And even though Young admitted he had been chasing Parks’ signature for two years, he was quick to insist his starting berth was not certain – with Ceri Sweeney standing in his way.
“I never guarantee any player a start,” Young said. “But if he plays like he was playing last season then it’s going to be very hard for Ceri to keep his jersey.
“Dan has settled in very quickly and is quite eager to get going at Cardiff now. He has obviously had his highs and lows in recent years, and ten [stand-off] at Cardiff is not an easy place to be because if he’s not performing people will certainly put him right around here.
“But I have been wanting him for two years because we needed someone who could kick well and put us in the right areas of the field, but also a player who didn’t just kick the leather off the ball all day.
“With players like Jamie Roberts, Leigh Halfpenny and Tom James outside him we have to move the ball and play rugby.
“I think Dan has been a victim of what happens a lot in rugby: people spending too much time questioning a player’s weaknesses and not enough looking at his strengths.
“Every player has weaknesses, but Dan has far more strengths in his game in my opinion. I know because he used them against us.
“Whenever we used to play Glasgow we would target him as a player we had to stop, and we failed every time. So I’m looking forward to seeing what he can bring to Cardiff.”
