My Life in Rugby: Tim Taylor – former Gloucester, Saracens & Nottingham fly-half

Winning the LV= Cup with Glouc-ester was a great achievement in my career but the highlight has to be when I was part of the Crusaders squad in 2006.
I moved over to New Zealand from England to experience the life, and after impressing with the Tasman Makos I was called into the squad.
They had a first-team squad of about 24 and then six or seven more in the wider training squad and I was part of that.
To be training every day with Richie McCaw and Dan Carter, when these guys were winning Super Rugby almost every year, was a real privilege.
I played a few games in pre-season and those memories will live with me for a long time, playing under a great coach like Robbie Deans.
As a kid from Derby I had heard that Leicester were offering trials and I gave it a shot although I didn’t have any expectations.
But I got picked and was put into the academy. Those were amazing days with a young crop of guys like Harry Ellis, Ollie Smith and Sam Vesty.
I was in the academy for five years, played a couple of first team games, but it was mostly age-group stuff and A-League. So I decided it was time to move and I had always been interested in seeing New Zealand.
I spoke to Josh Kronfeld and Daryl Gibson at Tigers and they helped hook me up with Nelson’s Bay before the Tasman Makos were formed, playing in the ITM Cup.Initially I thought it would be for six months but I was playing regular rugby at last and loving my time.
During my time there I got a call from my agent saying Saracens needed a fly-half, so I went back for six months and ended up playing quite a few games.
I think my time with the Crusaders had alerted them and I enjoyed it there, but I hadn’t finished with New Zealand and went back for six more months.
Unfortunately I broke my ankle in my last game, at the old ‘House of Pain’ as it used to be, in Otago.
But Glenn Delaney at Nottingham was interested and it seemed like the perfect chance to come home.
They were great at helping me with my rehab, as were my old club Leicester, and I enjoyed a good season in the Championship when we came close to promotion.
It was my first time in England starting 30 games in a season which is so important for a fly-half.
Then Gloucester came a calling; they had lost Carlos Spencer midway through the season and badly needed cover at 10.
Bryan Redpath brought me in and the highlight for me is the LV= Cup in 2011. I played a fair few games in that tournament and due to injuries was even the scrum-half cover for the semis and final!
I came on for the last 15 minutes in the final, at fly-half thankfully, and it was a fantastic feeling to win.
Sadly my knee injury problems surfaced not long after that and I have had to announce my retirement.
Now I do a bit of stuff with the Gloucester lads as a kicking coach which is great and makes not playing that little bit easier to take.