Archie McParland: Northampton coach predicts big future for teenage scrum-half

Archie McParland signed his first professional contract before the start of the season

Northampton Saints head coach Sam Vesty believes teenager Archie McParland has the ability to "shoot for the stars" following his first senior hat-trick.

The 18-year-old scrum-half scored three of Saints' 11 tries in an 82-12 win over Doncaster Knights in their final Premiership Rugby Cup game.

It put them second in Pool D with three wins from five games but they missed out on a semi-final place.

"He learns very quickly," Vesty told BBC Radio Northampton.

"We talk about doing something, practice it a couple of times and suddenly he's pretty good at it.

"It was very impressive what he put out there and he's got the right attitude to keep improving as well.

"If he keeps that attitude, and I can't see why he wouldn't, he can shoot for the stars."

McParland made his first-team debut against London Irish in last season's competition, when aged only 17, making him the club's youngest player in the professional era.

And he played in four of their group matches this term - starting three of them - and scored four tries in total.

Despite that, the Wirral-born youngster accepts he will have to be patient in his wait for an opportunity in the forthcoming Premiership season.

First-choice scrum-half Alex Mitchell is away with England at the World Cup, but McParland said: "There's a lot of competition at nine, the likes of Cal Braley coming back from injury, he's a very good player, the likes of Jake Garside as well.

"I've got to keep working hard and it's down to the coaches whether they put me in for the Premiership."

He had a try disallowed before crossing for the first of his three against Championship side Doncaster.

McParland was eventually replaced by Tom James just before the hour mark and added: "I've never run so much in my life, it was really tiring. I nearly got a fourth but my legs had just gone."

Northampton have reached the Premiership play-offs in the last two seasons and start the league campaign with a tough away game against Sale Sharks, runners up in 2022-23, on Sunday.

"It's a great challenge. But we can really take it to them and if we can do that for a long enough period of time, we'll be in a good place," Vesty added.

"They challenge you on lots of the dark arts and that's got to come from us in absolute spades, we've got to be the ones attacking with that, not accepting what they're doing."