NRL: Third time lucky for young Taylor

Elijah Taylor. Photo / Richard Robinson

The first time it happened, Elijah Taylor cried.

The second time he went into a dark hole he didn't emerge from until three months later. It's not a place he wants to return any time soon.

Taylor's NRL debut against the Sharks last weekend was nearly two years in the making. He was named to play against the Titans late in 2009 only to injure his hamstring in training on the Thursday before the game.

Then he looked set to play a significant role in last year's first-grade side only to suffer a serious knee injury on the eve of the season that wrecked his 2010. He managed to recover to play the final few matches for the Junior Warriors, something he says was a "little reward" for all his hard work. He scored two tries in their grand final win.

Taylor has been earmarked as a player of considerable potential for some time. He didn't start playing league until he was 17 - after watching Sonny Bill Williams do things on a rugby league field few others can. His move from Northland to Auckland's St Paul's College helped fertilise that desire to give league a go.

He recently turned 21 and last night played his second NRL game. Micheal Luck still has a few miles left in his battle-hardened body but Taylor looms as a ready-made replacement who also offers more as a ball-player. In 40 minutes against the Sharks, he made 30 tackles and five hit-ups which compares with Luck's 34 tackles and six hit-ups in 65 minutes.

Taylor captained the under-20s in 2009 - he was their Player of the Year - and led the side in their Toyota Cup triumph last year.

He's also halfway through a two-year Pinnacle programme to help aspiring athletes.

"It was really disappointing for everyone when he got injured both times," Warriors coach Ivan Cleary says. "To be sidelined for almost the whole season [in 2010], it was really easy to feel sorry for him. But he's the sort of kid who's not looking for sympathy too much.

"He's very much a self-starter and does a lot of stuff on his own. I can't praise him enough for his effort. Not only does he prepare really well and train as hard as anyone, he can actually play a bit as well. If he continues the way he's going now ... put it this way, whatever he gets out of the game he will never be able to look back and wonder if he could have done more."

Taylor can play five-eighth, centre and hooker on top of lock but his work rate and lack of pace suggests he's destined for the forwards. How long he lasts there could be determined by his love of rugby union.

"I played union all my life until I was 17," says Taylor who, like Williams, was a second five-eighths. "I was a big All Black fan - still am - and I wouldn't watch any other game. Then I started watching Sonny Bill at the Bulldogs and I was like, 'Mate, I want to be like him. I tried league and it was for me.

"I need to achieve all my goals in rugby league first but I still love my union. If I get an opportunity later in my career, I think I would take it. Second five. I still watch a lot of rugby and a lot of my friends are playing rugby."

But he needs his body to hold together. His hamstring injury was the first time he had picked up a niggle and his knee reconstruction was his first major injury.

"I am working hard to try to block it out because it's not good," he says. "It's been a tough road for me with injuries at the wrong times. It's just good to get out there and finally get the monkey off my back. To be playing first-grade football is an awesome feeling."