The winner of 53 Welsh caps, Ospreys centre Mark Taylor headed home after a successful spell with Sale Sharks. He talks to www.rucked.com.
How’s life Mark?
Fine, pretty good, I’m just enjoying being back to Ospreys and looking to make an impact in the European cup now…
The move from Sale, how did it come about?
I was out of contract at Sale – although to be fair they offered me an extension to stay – but I wanted to come back to Wales. My family had stayed in Wales for business commitments and been travelling at weekends and, also, as I’m approaching the end of my career I wanted to finish back in Wales – they were the two deciding factors.
What did you make of your experience across the border?
I really enjoyed it, it was a great experience from start to finish. It was the first time I’d played outside of Wales and the fact we were very successful in my first year was superb. To win the Guinness Premiership title was beyond my wildest dreams. With the likes of Mark Cueto, Charlie Hodgson, Jason Robinson and Charlie Hodgson, I knew they were a good side but to have the success we did was still way beyond what I expected.
We did up coming up short in Europe – losing to Biarritz in the quarter-finals by five points was the only real disappointment. Even then though, I’d only played in two Heineken Cup quarter-finals in my previous eight attempts, so to get that far was an achievement in itself.
What makes the Guinness Premiership different?
It’s very high profile, that’s one of the key factors – the Magners League is missing a high profile. In the Premiership you get big crowds every week and the Sky coverage is huge so the hype makes everything better. Every game is also vital because you’re either pushing for Europe and the play-offs or fighting off relegation. In the Magners League you’ve obviously got no relegation and to get into Europe you’ve only got to finish in the top three out of four provinces, so it’s missing that extra edge, that extra bit of pressure.
So what does the Magners League have to do – change the European qualification bit?
It is difficult to achieve because the country is allocated that many European spaces. Relegation makes a big difference but you can’t do that, it’s difficult to make the Magners League any more competitive than it is. I don’t know to be honest, it needs to be looked at but it’s beyond my knowledge…
Back to your move home, were there any options other than Ospreys?
I did talk to Newport but it didn’t get beyond the initial stages because when Ospreys came in, they were the side, above all others, I wanted to join.
What’s it like being back?
I’m really enjoying it. They’ve got a lot of big names here, a lot of Welsh players, a lot overseas guys like Justin Marshall, Marty Holah and Filo Tiatia to name but a few. It’s a good time to be involved here, we didn’t perform well during the World Cup but we’re building now and there’s a lot of expectation around. Europe is where we’re going to be judged, we’ve won the Magners League twice in three or four years, so it’s now time to step up into the big leagues and compete with the likes of Gloucester, Leicester, Stade Francais and Toulouse. Over the next couple of weeks we’ll find out where we are.
And you’re playing quite a bit…
I’m really enjoying it – I’ve started 12 games, which is fully beyond my expectations. I’ve been a bit lucky as I’ve had chances when the boys have been away. I’m enjoying rugby every time start, I’m realistic to know I’m in the twilight career, so any time I get a chance I grab it with both hands.
Are Ospreys good enough to step up?
I think a lot of it is down to belief, you need experience at the higher end. There are not many players here that have played in a European quarter-final, and so we need to take the next step up, we’ll find out if we’ve the mettle to do that. The talent is here, so it’s down to the mentality. It’s a massive challenge but we have the armoury to do it, we’ve got firepower and experience in all the right places.
Such as Gavin Henson?
Gavin is class act, I don’t think Wales have been the same without him – he’s the only out-and-out 12 in Wales, he takes Wales to the next level and he’s marvellous for the Ospreys. He’s been out with a hamstring injury and it’s important we get him back and firing because on the field he adds an extra dimension to Ospreys and Wales.
And Hook?
I played against James when I was with Sale and he virtually put us out of the tournament by coming off the bench and kicking a penalty at the Liberty Stadium. There’s been a lot of hype about James but he lives up to it, he’s a superb talent – he’s a talent like no other. People compare him to Gavin but they’re a bit different. Gavin has a lot of power while James is a more classic Welsh No.10 – a throwback to the golden days of Welsh rugby we all hark back to. He’s a beautiful player who goes through gaps and puts other people through them too – he’s an all-round talent and with experience he’ll gain even more control over games.
On the international front, do you think Wales have got the talent to compete at the top?
Yeah, I mean there’s no doubt the talent is there, I just think the whole structure needs looking at. We’ve only got four regions and there’s only about ten Welsh players on the pitch for each of them at any one time. Which means there's only 40 players for a coach to pick a squad of 30 from – that’s not much choice. If you look at the English league, they may have a massive amount of overseas players but they’ve got 12 teams so there’s still plenty of English players to pick from. We’ve got a very limited pool…
Do you think overseas players are good for the game then?
I think so definitely. Look at Ospreys, we’ve got a class winger in Nikki Walker, then Tiatia, Marshall and Holah are superb talents who bring over knowledge – that’s the key thing with the youngsters in our squad. Look at Filo, he’s 36 and still doing it week-in, week-out, the young players need to look and learn. I’m not saying imports are wrong, just that they need to be top notch.
So what’s the solution?
To be honest I think it was a shame the Celtic Warriors folded when they did, I know there were funding issues but the region could have gone places. Maybe we need to look at ways of building the Welsh Premiership… I just feel we need to find ways of making more talent available.
What about you, any chance of adding to your caps?
Ah no, being realistic, I’m beyond that. The new coach needs to look to the future and after a disappointing World Cup when we let ourselves down, everything needs to be focussed on the next one. There’s a lot of quality players around in Wales, although of course if I got a chance I’d jump at it
Finally, what’s been the highlight of your career?
That’s a tricky one, you look back and there’s so many: winning the Guinness Premiership was massive, beating South Africa on the opening day of the Millennium Stadium was massive so was getting first my cap. But I think the highlight has to be the 2005 Grand Slam.
Seems like an age ago…
I know, so much has happened since – Wales have been through two coaches since then!
And the worst moment?
They low point had to be the Welsh tour to South Africa in 1998 when we lost all the tour games and even managed to lose by 96 points to South Africa, that was the lowest month of my life.