My Life in Rugby: Mark Taylor – former Wales and Ospreys centre
Nobody will ever be able to take that away from me and what was even better was that it came in a win over South Africa.
My dad Ivor was in the Newport team which famously beat the Springboks in 1969, so when I scored that try and we beat them in 1999 I was able to say that now we had both beaten them.
While that was incredible, the moment which sticks out the most was being part of the Grand Slam side in 2005.
I was coming to the end of my international career and was only brought in for the final match because of injuries.
Mike Ruddock asked if I could play out on the wing because we were short. I told him I’d play tighthead prop if it meant I’d be involved.
The moment that stands out is about a minute from the end when we had a lineout and the game was won. I just looked around and took in this incredible crowd cheering us on to a first Slam since the 70s – it was breathtaking.
I’d broken into the international set-up in 1994. I’d played against South Africa for Wales A and when Nigel Davies broke his jaw I was called into the Test team a week later.
I spent a bit of time in and out of the team – I was up in London when I got the devastating news that I had missed out in the final cut for the 1995 World Cup.
In 1998 I came back in for the summer tour to South Africa where the only match we won was against Zimbabwe. Even the likes of Gauteng beat us. I thought that was it for my international career.
But when Graham Henry came in, there was a bit of a clean slate and I got another opportunity. There were two unbelievable games in Paris in 1999 and 2001 – we won both but I’ve never played in such quick games.
After 20 minutes of the 1999 game I was looking around after the sixth try had gone over between the teams, thinking this can’t go on.
Then we played England at Wembley in the final game. Everyone remembers Scott Gibbs’ try and at the time I didn’t think about the pressure on Neil Jenkins to get the conversion. It was only after that I realised how much was riding on it.
The 2003 World Cup was pretty special because we had been going through a bit of a dip but we played New Zealand and the shackles came off. It was the game where Shane Williams really arrived.
In the quarter-final we came off kicking ourselves because we thought we could have won it with slightly better discipline.
After 2005 I made the decision to try something different and moved to Sale. Charlie Hodgson was playing the best rugby of his career and when we got to the Premiership final we were so confident.
I’d played Leicester a lot of times and mostly got a kicking so it was good to get my own back.
After that I returned to Wales for a year with the Ospreys before retiring. Now I’m doing a little bit of coaching with Aberavon and I am the team manager for the Welsh U20s.
Beating the Baby Blacks ranks up there with anything I did as a player and it’s certainly something I want to stay involved in.
