Rugby legend shares 'lifeline' that saved him from oblivion in parents' house

Richard Parks is taking a quiet moment up in the stands of Pontypridd RFCs Sardis Road home ground.

The Welsh rugby union legend might be better known these days for his extraordinary journeys across the ice caps of the poles, and for planting the Red Dragon flag on the planets highest peaks but it was Ponty, he says, that made it all possible. I was born here, Parks, 48, says. My time with this club has shaped so much of my life. Its always been a club much bigger than just sport. As players we knew we were representing our community, our families.

Recently, he has swapped his expeditions including to the South Pole with Hollywoods Will Smith for a different kind of journey, back to the coalface of grassroots rugby. Parks represented Wales from 2001 to 2003, but while the national side is foundering, he is seeking a different prize the extraordinary community built by local clubs, many of which are struggling through lack of funding.

The game runs through me, Parks says. Im a proud Welshman and I feel a great debt to the game for everything Ive been able to do in this second chapter of my life.

His captains run through Welsh rugby a working-class game forged in coal, choirs, iron and steel, distinct from English rugby union is told in his podcast, Beyond the Breakdown, made with Round Our Ways Sofie Jenkinson and Alex Bevan. Rugby clubs arent just about rugby people come for funerals, weddings, kids parties, he says. They are one of the few hubs that still provide a place for the community they serve to come together. If we lose them, well lose something profound in our country.

Parks has come back to his Sardis Road roots to meet a titan of the game, Dale Chief McIntosh, who played and coached here. In Wales, ancient tales are told of giants carved into mountains, but for me, the real giants are people like Chief adopted sons of a Valley who choose, day after day, to carry it on their shoulders, he says. You can feel the weight of Ponty in his voice.

Beyond the Breakdown mines deep below the surface of the game, with Parks sharing his passion for the natural world with rugby union legends including Shane Williams, Adam Jones, Jon Fox Davies, Scott Baldwin and George North, as only a man whos witnessed polar ice caps melting first-hand can.

On Thursday, he was at Bridgend Ravens for a ministerial visit with Katie White OBE MP to showcase the clubs plan to become the first carbon-neutral rugby team in Wales via a partnership with Electrify Cymru. Wales is a beautiful, very green country, but were also particularly susceptible to climate change, whether thats communities on our coast, mountains, riverbanks or floodplains, he says.

Ive had the privilege to travel the planet, but I also coach my sons under-eights rugby team, and we didnt play a game in January because of the weather. I know its always rained in Wales. But changing climate patterns and extreme weather events are a big issue for the game.

There are mountains in South America and Ecuador I have climbed, that my son, our children, will never be able to climb because of glacial retreat. As a family we built our dream home on the River Taff, but in the future my son may inherit a world in which hes unable to get insurance to live there.

Parks mum, Lee, is from Jamaica, while his dad, Derek, hailed from Wales and in his conversation with McIntosh, who has Maori heritage, the men reflect honestly on a world full of loud voices trying to pull us apart. Parks says: We are exponentially more powerful when we act to shape Wales future together.

In other shows, some of the toughest men in sport open up about mental health. Parks 13-year rugby career ended abruptly in 2009 with a shoulder injury. He was 31, one moment with the world at his feet, and the next shut in a bedroom at his parents rented house contemplating oblivion.

I wouldnt be here without my mum and dad, but I was really struggling to let them in, he says. Knowing they were there outside the door still helped. Them being there was my lifeline, being really blunt. Shut in the spare room, he found himself studying his tattoo of a quote by the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes he first heard at his Nana Gwens funeral. The horizon is only the limit of our sight, led him to the ends of the Earth.

Fast-forward 17 years and he is the first person to climb the highest mountain on each of the worlds seven continents and stand on the North and South Poles in the same year. He is the first person of colour to ski solo to the South Pole, and has skied more solo, unsupported and unassisted miles in the Antarctic than anyone else.

When I was chosen to guide Will Smith in the Antarctic for his Disney+ series, Pole to Pole, it felt like the culmination of my athletic performance and the mastery of my craft. But what seemed to really resonate with people was a genuine conversation I had with Will in the tent about our tough times.

That moment of vulnerability led to so many wonderful responses on social media. We need more conversations around mental health and depression with men theres still significant stigma yet all of us will go through a difficult period in our lives. Every man I spoke to for the podcast shares an element of vulnerability.

Rich lost his dad, Derek, in 2023. I miss my dad every single day. The day my son joined his first football club, I was an emotional wreck thinking of how much my dad would have wanted to be there, he says. My son said something profound, like five-year-olds do. He said half of him was happy because he got an award and half of him was sad because he missed Pa. It was a beautiful way of saying we can feel different things at the same time.

Parks is now back by the Taff, ready for Super Saturday in Cardiff, when Wales play for pride against Italy. To avoid the Six Nations wooden spoon, Parks is hoping the team will rise like his big toe, which he nearly lost on Everest and nicknamed Lazarus. He is buoyed, like all Welshmen and women, by last weeks jaw-dropping try from prop Rhys Carre, which almost broke the internet.

Im glad Rhys could show the world what he can do, Parks says. Im heartbroken at the position the game is in here in Wales, but I see it as a separate conversation to the national team. Were rebuilding our national team and transitions can be tough, but its an exciting time for the young talent. Saturday feels like our first real test, its big.

Welsh rugby has a mountain to climb and if theres anyone who knows about climbing mountains, its Richard Parks.

Listen to Richards podcast here

*For emotional support you can call the Samaritans 24-hour helpline on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org, visit a Samaritans branch in person or go to the Samaritans website.

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