SCOTT: I’LL NEVER GO BACK TO JAIL
SCOTT MOORE will step back on to a rugby league field with new club Rochdale vowing never to return to prison. Moore made headlines in March when he was sentenced to a year and 11 months after being tasered five times by police officers following a car chase that reached speeds of 150mph.
A 50-minute struggle was described by one officer as the most physical encounter he had seen in 20 years in the force. Moore’s early career was also chequered by various off-field incidents that included a notorious night out with Hollywood star Mickey Rourke that earned him a suspension at Huddersfield.
But the birth of his daughter Maddison shortly before his release and the support of partner Harriet and his family while inside have convinced him to leave his past behind.
Moore, 30, said: “In a way I’m grateful I’ve been to prison. It is what you make of it and it had probably been coming. I’d had a few close calls.
“But I met some good people inside, learned a lot about myself and finally grew up a bit.
“When I went in, my story had been in the papers and a few of them thought I was a bit nuts after all the times I got tasered.
“But I made friends in there and just cracked on with it. I can’t change the past but I’ve come out a different person.”
Moore’s on-field ability has rarely been questioned from the moment he became Super League’s youngest ever debutant at St Helens aged just 16.
He played twice for England, made the Super League Dream Team in 2009 and has had spells with Castleford, Widnes, London Wakefield, Bradford and North Queensland Cowboys in the NRL.
This year he will run out as a part-time player for the first time, with a Rochdale side that has the Championship’s smallest budget.
He added: “I just want to get back playing and being around the boys and to rebuild my life.” FAMILY MAN: Moore with partner Harriet and Maddison