The openside flanker has been around the international set-up long enough not to get too carried away by results on the field – a mindset which came in handy when Wales Women’s run of five victories came to an abrupt end two weekends ago.
The newly-professional England brought a new level of intensity to the Women’s Six Nations at the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park that day, and were nigh unstoppable. “A lot of our players hadn’t been in that environment, in front of such an impressive crowd,” says Taylor of the 4,000-plus supporters who poured into the ground. “It was also the first time we’d played against that team since they’d turned fully professional. You’ve got to take your hat off to them: they were class in everything they did.”
Taylor, who works as a WRU Rugby Coordinator in North Wales, is pragmatic about the result. “Unfortunately it was one of those days where no matter what we did, it wasn’t going to work,” she says frankly. “Just keeping the ball seemed more difficult than usual. Games are all about momentum, and as soon as it shifts, it’s very difficult to get it back. But now we need to re-focus on what we’re good at.”
She feels it might be somewhat disingenuous to highlight the positives of her team’s performance against England – the Welsh pack holding its own in the scrum and lineouts – preferring instead to pay tribute to the supporters who turned out in their droves.
“We had a brilliant crowd in Cardiff. The pre-match atmosphere was absolutely electric,” says the 58-times capped forward, giving recognition to the supporters whose enthusiasm was in evidence from start till finish. “It was disappointing that we couldn’t give them more than we did, but now we have to pick ourselves up and perform against Scotland this week, and take that straight into the next game.”
That next game for Wales Women is at home to Ireland on Saturday 11th March (11:30), and Taylor wants the team to repay the fans with a strong performance. “We want to make sure we can encourage more people to watch us, and we need to play good rugby in order to do that,” she believes. “We didn’t perform well last time out, but we have to make sure we do the next time we’re at home in Cardiff. I think people appreciate how far we’ve come as a squad. A lot of the people that came to watch us against England have watched us in the past and, whilst they know that we’re capable of better, they also know we came up against a side that are a professional outfit and looked every bit of it.”
For her part, the former Wales captain doesn’t want to get too hung up on using England’s professionalism as an excuse: “We’ve got a World Cup in August where we’re going to play against the likes of New Zealand and Canada in our group, so we can’t let these things be an issue. Regardless of whether the opposition is professional or semi-professional, we can only concentrate on ourselves and bringing our A-game. It’s up to us to make sure that we do that.”
Head coach Rowland Phillips described his team’s need to get straight into their first training session post-England as a “cleansing” process. If that sounds gentle, Taylor says it was anything but. “The first session back was pretty tough. If we’re being brutally truthful, a lot of us underperformed, which is hard to take, but we’ve got a new environment where we’re very honest with each other,” she says. “It’s in the middle of the Women’s Six Nations – no one wants a result like that – but you process it and move on to the next game. We can’t go into Scotland with any doubts in our ability, because we were on a really good run up until two weekends ago.”
An opening day victory away to Italy means Wales still have much to play for in the competition, and will continue to develop as they do so. “In our team, we’re naturally good rugby players, but it’s in the top two inches where we can make massive strides forward,” Taylor explains. “If we can get that winning mentality back against Scotland this Friday, I don’t see there being anything that can stop us.”
Her head coach is certainly grateful to have her in his team, recently hailing Taylor as a “consistently outstanding” player. “She’s a consummate professional and an important leader within our team,” Phillips says. “To have somebody who’s been there and done that, to be able to help with the development of not only new players, but established players – not to mention imparting her experiences to a new captain – is invaluable for us.”
Wales Women will face Scotland Women at Broadwood Stadium this Friday night at 18:20. The game will be streamed live on the BBC Sport Online. Tickets for Wales Women’s next home match, against Ireland Women (Saturday 11th March) at the BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park, are available here.
