Tommy Taylor – member of the young north western Sharks (From Messenger Newspapers)

Tommy Taylor – member of the young north western Sharks

1:15pm Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in Sport

LITTLE more than two years ago, Sale Sharks’ hooker Tommy Taylor was a pupil at King’s School, Macclesfield.

Last Sunday, he was a half time replacement against probably the sternest front row the Sharks will face this season – seven days after being in the starting 15 for the Sharks’ opening win against Cardiff Blues in the Heineken Cup.

Speaking exclusively to the Messenger at Beziers Airport on the way home from Montpellier, Taylor said: “I enjoyed both games, particularly the Cardiff one, which came at a good time for us. We worked hard to qualify for the Heineken Cup last year, and it’s been a massive experience for young guys like myself.”

Taylor – not 21 until next month – continued: “Montpellier was a further step up, with their experienced pack. I’ve got lessons to learn, but playing in front of that crowd was most enjoyable. They knocked us around a bit for a 15 minute spell, but we can take a lot of the good things into Friday’s game at Worcester.

“We’ve a string of lads from the North West apart from myself: Mark Jennings (Lymm), Will Addison (Cumbria), Rob Miller (Cumbria), Tom Brady (Flixton), Nathan Fowles (Rochdale) and Ross Harrison (Lymm). We’ve other younger players, adopted from other parts of the country, like James Doyle and Henry Thomas,” Tommy added.

His old school, King’s Macc, are doing well at rugby, having recently beaten Sedbergh.”Rugby Master Guy Mason’s done a good job there,” Tommy said. “Sedbergh weren’t even on our fixture list in my time."

Tom comes from deep rooted rugby traditions. His grandfather John is a recent Cheshire RFU President and Uncle Ian is a second team regular for Macclesfield. He’s even turned out for the firsts at prop at the age of 46 this year.