Pete Taylor: I Want It To Be About Winning At Twickenham

After reflecting on Saturday’s brilliant 26-13 win over Lancashire at Brantingham Park, Yorkshire’s forwards coach Pete Taylor was full of praise for the players. Reaching the final of the Bill Beaumont County Championship on Saturday June 15, will be Yorkshire’s first visit to Twickenham since 2008, when they beat Devon 33-13. Taylor wants this year’s story to be about finishing the job, rather than getting to the home of rugby.

“I don’t want it to be about getting to Twickenham, I want it to be about winning at Twickenham,” Taylor said.
“Saturday’s win over Lancashire rates very highly for me. I’ve been to Twickenham loads of times as a player, but never as a coach.
“When you play or coach for a club side, you’re working week in, week out. You go through peaks and troughs, ups and downs. “With Yorkshire, it’s a year-long journey and you have to do it properly. I’ve watched a large number of games and have plenty of conversations with players and Directors of Rugby.
“Watching the video of Saturday’s win, we feel we played some good rugby at times.
“We’ll keep the plan simple for Twickenham and if the players can do what they did against Lancashire on Saturday, then we’ll have a really good game and hopefully end up with the win.
“Once they get on the pitch, it’s just another game of rugby, and it’s just another piece of grass.”

There was so much to enjoy about Saturday’s win, not just the result. Two quick fire tries midway through the first half gave Yorkshire control of the game. Remarkably, both those scores came when Yorkshire were down to 14 men following the yellow card shown to Wharfedale’s George Hedgley. Taylor was impressed with his side’s execution in attack.

“We outscored Lancashire four tries to one, I’d never have dreamed of that,” Taylor said.
“To win 26-13 and only allow Lancashire over our line once, was massive.
“We gave ourselves a decent platform, our line out was decent and our scrum was decent as well. 
“Generally, I thought our forwards allowed our backs to play.
“When you have the likes of Lewis Minikin running the show at 13 like he did, watching the game back, he had so much time and space on the ball in attack, it didn’t matter if we were playing against 15, 14 or 20.
“The tries we scored highlighted the trust the players have in each other.
“Every player in the squad contributed to that win.
“The win justified everything we have done in the last three years.”

Taylor paid tribute to Hull Ionians for the way they hosted Saturday’s double-header that began with Yorkshire Women beating their Lancashire counterparts 30-19. A large crowd turned out to cheer both teams on to a place in Twickenham and Taylor was grateful to the support given to them by the club. 

“Ionians were brilliant with us, absolutely outstanding,” Taylor said.
“When we trained there on Thursday night, they couldn’t have done any more for us. 
“That makes such a difference.
“When we picked the squad at the start of the season, we had a depth chart of about 60 players.
“At that point, we wouldn’t have dreamt that nine players would be from the two Hull clubs. 
“It worked out so well that Saturday’s game was at Hull Ionians. That made it even more special.
“It was great to see a decent crowd at the game.
“Having the women and men play on the same day, I always think that’s the way to do it.”