AGONY FOR ENGLAND
SCOTLAND defence coach Matt Taylor returns to Houston, Texas this week with his stock at an all-time high. The man who spent a year in the city back in 1996 playing for the flamboyantly named Fighting Cocks in the American leagues has come a long way since then.
He is now recognised as one of the world’s best defensive coaches, up there with the likes of Andy Farrell of Ireland.
His standing in the game was further enhanced when England head coach Eddie Jones put him top of his list to replace Paul Gustard, who left to join Harlequins, a move first revealed by Sportsmail.
Jones didn’t even get as far as making an official approach to the SRU as he was told privately that Taylor would not be interested.
The England head coach’s loss was Gregor Townsend’s gain. It was Townsend who first brought Taylor into Scottish rugby from the Queensland Reds to join him at Glasgow Warriors as his defence coach back in 2012. Taylor also worked for the first five years part-time in the same role with the Scotland national team.
When Townsend left Glasgow in 2017 to take over from Vern Cotter at Scotland, he brought Taylor with him as his full-time defence coach and most trusted lieutenant.
To lose his closest confidante so close to the 2019 World Cup would have been a major blow to Scotland’s preparations and a real blow to Townsend personally.
Thankfully, Taylor wouldn’t even consider joining England despite the fact he would have tripled his wages — and he is by Townsend’s side here in North America preparing for the match against the USA Eagles.
Talking for the first time of his reasons for staying with Scotland, he said he had too much ‘emotional investment’ in the country and too close a friendship with Townsend to consider jumping ship.
He also revealed that in the long term the only thing that could possibly tempt him away from the Scotland set-up would be to become head coach at either Edinburgh or Glasgow Warriors.
The Brisbane-born 45-year-old admitted he was flattered to be linked with England but he knew where his priorities lay.
‘It’s always nice if your name is put around for jobs,’ said Taylor, whose parents are from Dunfermline. ‘It means that people think highly of you.
‘With Eddie Jones, there’s a small connection between the pair of us as he and Ewen McKenzie, who I worked with at the Queensland Reds for a long time, also worked together.
‘We’ve caught up at various things over the years, me and Eddie, to say hello and g’day to each other.
‘We had a Six Nations conference recently in Bilbao and we were both there. It was good to catch up with him as he’s an interesting character. He knows rugby inside out.
‘He works extremely hard, by all accounts. Another guy I know said he’s a workaholic. He expects high
standards from his staff.’
The man who played for the Border Reivers and Scotland A during his professional career said the next logical step for him would be to become a head coach, but the time was not right.
Scotland forwards coach Dan McFarland may be leaving to be head coach at Ulster within the next few months but he was wary of making such a leap.
‘Dan has decided to take an opportunity that came up,’ said the Scotland assistant coach. ‘He’s a good guy and a very good coach.
‘He has a link to Ireland, too, as he was involved at Connacht and the Ireland age grades before he joined Glasgow and then Scotland. Everyone is motivated differently.
‘It would be a natural progression for me to be a head coach but if you take that leap, in the UK or elsewhere, then you may never get a chance to get back to international rugby. I want to make that move on my terms. I’m in no rush. I love what I’m doing and I love working with Gregor and the other coaches.
‘I have so much emotional investment in Scotland on so many levels. I’m really happy with Scotland rugby-wise and Scotland has been good for me. I’m looking forward to doing bigger and better things with the national team.
‘On a personal level, my family are very happy in Scotland. My kids are Scottish — one was born here when I was with the Reivers — even though they miss their cousins and grandparents in Australia. I feel very Scottish and I hope I’m involved here for many years.
‘Depending on how we go with Scotland over the next couple of years, there could be other opportunities for me. Whether that’s different positions within the set-up or maybe coach at one of the pro teams. Who knows?
‘It’s hard to think about coaching a different team because I feel so strongly about Scotland.’
Taylor is looking forward to returning this week to Houston where he has happy memories of when he was a player. He set off on a round-the-world trip with his best friend from Brisbane back in 1996. He arrived in Texas and never left for nine months.
‘We had a few guys at our club, Sunnybank in Brisbane, who had been to Houston, so there was a link,’ said the former Scotland A flanker. ‘We heard Houston had a good club, the Fighting Cocks, so we spent nine fantastic months there.
‘I think we were called the Fighting Cocks as it had something to do with the French rooster associated with the French national side. Anyway, it was a great name.
‘We played in a lot of tournaments in places like New Orleans when the Mardi Gras was on. It was fantastic and I still have a lot of friends in Houston.
‘There’s a guy called Eddie Brown, who was my coach. I learned a lot from him and I’m looking forward to catching up with him again in Houston in the run up to the game against the USA.’
He expects the USA Eagles team , who are in Pool C of the World Cup along with England, Argentina, France and Tonga, to provide stern opposition next weekend.
‘They have a new coach in Gary Gold, who was at Worcester, Bath and Newcastle,’ said the Scotland defence coach. ‘He was at the Sharks when I was with the Queensland Reds.
‘He will have them playing a structured game in terms of kicking and exiting out of their half. We will have to be at our best to get a result against them.’