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GARETH GLAD TO BE BACK IN DRIVING SEAT - Sunday Mercury Sept. 2007

MOSELEY'S Gareth Taylor spent last year feeling as if he had been involved in car crash. But now he has the drive to make himself an even better player after recovering from a long injury lay-off. As the Red and Blacks prepare for what is certain to be their toughest challenge of the season with a trip to Northampton Saints on Saturday, scrum-half Taylor is likely to remain a spectator.
But the 27-year-old is just grateful to be back within touching distance of firstteam action. Last year, after captaining Mose to their record-breaking promotion to National One, Taylor picked up a rare ankle injury during a pre-season friendly against Worcester.
The injury, a Liz Frank sprain, usually associated with car-crash victims, ended an impressive run of 90 consecutive starts. The former Nottingham and Pertemps Bees man had to watch Moseley cling on to their National One status by the skin of their teeth. However, the frustrated spectator role appears to have borne fruit for Taylor, a PE teacher. He admits that being forced to watch more matches has improved his knowledge of the game and as a result he believes that he will be a better player when he returns.
"While I was injured I watched a hell of a lot of rugby and you don't get to do that when you are playing," said Solihull-born Taylor. "I was able to view the game from a different angle and most notably National One because it is a big step up from National Two. "From being able to watch it I was able to pick up how different scrum-halves work, the pace of the game and a few different patterns.
"While I would have loved to play, by being able to sit and watch the game I was given an insight into National One and how certain players performed and I think I will be a better player for that.
"I played a few games the last time Moseley were in National One before they went down so I had a little taste of it. From watching it now I know what to expect when hopefully I start playing again.
"One of the lads has also said that the injury might do my career some good because before that I had played three or four seasons straight through." Taylor's gradual return to fitness has been a long and frustrating journey with several setbacks along the way.
He was expected to be back in action last Christmas but, after overcoming his initial injury, he was struck down with tendonitis which eventually saw him miss the entire season.
Difficult There were times when the ex-Solihull Sixth Form College pupil thought he would never play again and he has now learnt to take things one step at a time.
"It was a really difficult time for me," he said. "At first I was expected to come back at Christmas, then Easter, but eventually I was out for the season. "It's not so bad when you have a date set – it's when someone says it will be another month or two months. Up until two months ago I was thinking that I might not play again. It didn't look good because it was still hurting just as much. But I had a cortisone injection and it seems to have cleared up. "The first injury was the Liz Franks sprain. Then I had tendonitis. So now I just take it one step at a time. That is all I can do – I don't want to set goals. "Just after Christmas it was still really sore to walk on and I thought ‘what am I going to do?'. "My missus was more concerned because with all the extra time on my hands I would have been around the house a lot more."
Taylor got his long-awaited return to the rugby field last Monday during Moseley A's 60-5 victory over Nottingham A.
And, although he admits he found it tough going, he was just delighted to get some much-needed game time under his belt. "It felt the game was going at 100mph," he said. "A year ago when I was playing it seemed that I had a lot more time on the ball. "But it was only two weeks ago that I got back into running so I was really pleased to get half-an-hour and now I've just got to get a lot more games like that out of the way.
"I've got a long way to go and both Jimmy Ireland and Dan Hunter have done well at scrum-half but I'm sure they would agree that it will be great competition. "When I was injured it gave me the chance to help out some of the other lads in training but now I've got to concentrate on myself and get that right."