Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor rings radio station to defend club after criticism

JASON Taylor was listening to the radio when he heard his Wests Tigers cop it from the commentators. So he rang up the station to defend his team.

Jason Taylor coach of the Wests Tigers rugby league team during training at Campbelltown Stadium, Sydney. Pic Brett Costello

YOU can’t deny Jason Taylor’s passion.

After hearing his club cop it on the radio, the Wests Tigers coach rang in to launch an impassioned defence of his team and its playing style.

“I was driving along and I caught the end of it and I know there’s a lot of disappointed Tigers fans out there at the moment so I thought I’d come on and ... answer any questions that you want to know where we’re at with regards to the weekend’s performance and where we’re at as a team right now,” Taylor told Triple M’s The Rush Hour, featuring rugby league legends and commentators Peter Sterling and Andrew Johns.

Jason Taylor was responding to criticism of the Wests Tigers’ form. Picture: Brett Costello

The Tigers have come under fire in the wake of Saturday’s dour 8-0 loss to a depleted North Queensland Cowboys outfit at Campbelltown Stadium.

Taylor pulled no punches when it came to talking about his side’s poor attack, but was adamant the Tigers had more pressing problems than an inability to find the tryline.

He said the Tigers coaching staff were desperate to improve the club’s defence after a poor recent run which included a 22-12 loss to the Knights and 36-4 flogging by the Roosters.

“We’re disappointed with our attack in that game. It was pretty ordinary and we need to work on that,” Taylor said.

“It sounded really weird for people after that game but we have to get our defence improved and we have to toughen up as a team and we’ve set about changing that.

“Last year we had 110 tries scored against us, which was the worst in the competition, and the year before that we had 120 tries scored against us. What we need to do is we need to change the culture in regards to toughening up the team and being a better defensive team.”

Tigers players watch on after conceding the only try of the game against the Cowboys at Campbelltown Stadium. Picture: Mark Evans

After fielding more questions from Sterling and Johns, Taylor was adamant his club was headed in the right direction.

“I know that was ugly on the weekend,” Taylor said.

“I said after the game it was crap, our attack was crap, we’re better than that.

“But we defended in the fashion that we need to defend and the challenge for us now is to do that again and then do that again and then do it again.

“We started the season well in that regard but then we dropped off. We’ve got to toughen up.

“You can’t go anywhere near winning competitions unless you can defend and right now we can’t defend. So that’s where the energy’s going to remain to go.

“That means we’ve got to put more energy in defence and a little but less in attack — I’m not saying we don’t want to score tries — but we’ve got to learn to do this, we’ve got to toughen up and that’s the path.”

Originally published as Wests Tigers coach Jason Taylor rings radio station to defend club after criticism