HULL TARGET GRAND FINAL
‘ You’d end up in Hull FC immortality’ says FC prop Taylor ahead of play- offs
HULL FC prop Scott Taylor admits it would have been “laughable” to consider his side as Grand Final contenders just three months ago but it is the here and now that matters most.
With the play- off format extended only last week from the top- four to top- six, the East Yorkshire club has unexpectedly squeezed into the mix.
They head to third- placed Warrington Wolves this evening for a sudden- death play- off and, on a three- match winning sequence, rightly fancy their chances.
Hull have not won the league since 1983 but knowing the Grand Final will be at their own KCOM Stadium later this month has only crystallized their determination to succeed.
Admittedly, their play- off form in recent years has been wretched and the only time they have made a Grand Final was as long ago as 2006.
But vice- captain Taylor, 29, said: “It’s been a weird year and how more weird would it be if we end up coming from nowhere and end up getting there?
“You’d end up in Hull FC immortality as no Hull FC team has ever done it.
“We know there’s a lot of hard work still to be done and it is looking like the hardest route – you’ll probably have to get through Warrington, then Wigan ( away) and St Helens.
“But the biggest thing I’ve made known today to the boys is just let it sink in tonight, while you’re sitting at home, knowing if we get the win we’re just one win away from a Grand Final.
“If you’d have said that to us three months ago we would have laughed in your face knowing where we were but it just shows how things can turn around. We’re only worrying about ourselves and backing ourselves to do it.”
Taylor joined his hometown club in 2016 and helped them immediately win the Challenge Cup at Wembley.
But the England international conceded: “I felt we had the best team and squad in ‘ 16 and that’s probably my biggest regret.
“When I look back now, we won that Challenge Cup and were one win from winning the League Leaders’ but after Wembley probably everyone got ahead of themselves and thought the season was a massive success already.
“We went in the play- offs to Wigan, one game from a Grand Final, and we just fell short.
“Looking back it is frustrating as we know we probably should have been winning the Grand Final that year. But we didn’t and it’s the past. It’s gone.
“A lot of people are writing us off now and it’s a different taste in the mouth but it’s good.
“Look at the form table for the last four or five games. We’re right near the top of that. The boys are building some confidence.
In ’ 16 and ’ 17 we probably ran out of steam and got beat by the team in fourth.
“But this is the first time in my Hull FC career where we go into the play- offs and the season hasn’t been a success already.
“There’s no silverware in the back pocket and we are going in as underdogs as well which we quite like. Part of me re- signing ( until the end of 2023) and staying here for the rest of my career is all to win the Grand Final.
“That’s the reason I still turn up for training every day.
“We’ve managed to be in with a shot for it now and I know we’re a long way from it but it would mean the world.”
Taylor is due a change of luck, too; he has only played twice in the last seven months having endured a bad back injury and then needed to isolate on three different occasions.
It was perhaps no surprise he was omitted from Shaun Wane’s England squad last week.
Taylor, who won the 2013 Grand Final while playing under Wane at Wigan, said: “I had a real good chat with Waney. I get on well with him and I really respect him. Everything he said to me was correct and I agreed it’s right that he pulls me out for now.
“Past form and reputation means absolutely nothing to Waney and I love that. I know that my first responsibility is to get fully fit and play well for Hull FC.
“I’m feeling fresh going into this and I know there’s a big responsibility on my shoulders.”
Wane also dropped Warrington captain Chris Hill, the veteran prop who has been an England regular since 2012. Both will be out to prove a point with club and country in mind tonight.