Saracens Women appoint Taylor as player-coach

Saracens Women is delighted to announce Tamara Taylor has joined the club as a player-coach.

The 38-year-old has been a focal point of English rugby for over a decade and is third on the list of caps for England with 115 to her name.

Born in the West Country, Taylor grew up in Zambia and then Botswana until she was seven and caught the rugby bug four years later at Oratory Prep School.

She then joined Henley where her competitive playing career began and she went on to make her England Students debut at 17.

The lock studied a degree in Biomedical Sciences at Newcastle University and alongside her studies continued to evolve on the pitch, representing Great Britain Students at rugby league.

But it was union where Taylor excelled. She appeared in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and played in every game of England’s triumphant 2014 tournament-winning campaign before captaining her country in the Six Nations a year later.

“Having the opportunity to bring Tamara in as both a player and a coach is a massive addition to the club."

Taylor has a vast amount of coaching experience dating back to 2005 where she was head coach of Newcastle University Women’s team for five seasons before a three-year stint in the same role at Worcester University.

A Level 4 senior coach developer with England, she was Jarrovians Men’s head coach from 2013 to 2015 and has since been co-head coach of Durham Men’s Under-18s, and forwards and head coach of DMP Sharks.

In 2018/19, she added to her coaching experience as a support coach with the Newcastle Falcons Junior Academy and is currently Sweden Women’s assistant coach.

Taylor’s experience will prove invaluable to Saracens and she is relishing the opportunity of working with a talented group of players.

She said: “Saracens has a formidable track record in the top flight of women's rugby, and having played against them for a number of years, I'm looking forward to be joining forces, rather than going against them.

“This is a really exciting opportunity to coach some very talented individuals and be a part of a team that is so well supported by the rest of the club at Saracens. I hope to be able to use my experience as an international player, and level 4 coach, to continue to keep pushing us forwards.

“I want to thank Alex and the staff at Saracens for valuing my playing and coaching experience, and I can't wait to get to work with the coaching team and be a part of the Saracens family.”

Saracens head coach Alex Austerberry said: “Having the opportunity to bring Tamara in as both a player and a coach is a massive addition to the club. Her experience and knowledge will play a huge part in developing players to be able to excel on both the domestic and international stage. Her level of detail and coaching manner will no doubt lead to players accelerated development and a direct impact on our performance.

“One thing that is clear is Tamara is immensely passionate about the game, both playing and coaching. An energy and great coaching intuition twinned with a competitive desire shone through and I am sure this will drive and shape our programme for many years to come.

“As well as coaching, Tamara will be competing with our very talented group of young second rows. I am sure this will be of great benefit to everyone’s game.

“It is not every day you have the opportunity to bring a vastly experienced player and World Cup winner into the fold who also has a Level 4 coaching qualification. We are very lucky to have both Tam and Rocky (Clark) as integral parts of our coaching and playing team.”