It's been a frustrating fortnight at Wests Tigers with consecutive two-point defeats, but perhaps none have felt as frustrated as co-captain Elijah Taylor.
After leading his side back from 10-0 down against the Newcastle Knights and in to the lead, Taylor was rocked with a heavy tackle that left the Kiwi international with concussion — sidelining him for the remainder of the match as the Novacastrians stormed back in to the match and eventually stole the win.
The concussion was serious enough to leave him sidelined the following week against Parramatta — again forced to watch on as his side struggled with errors and discipline in a see-sawing 24-22 defeat.
With four points lost in the time that he's been out, Taylor was chomping at the bit to return and said the steps his side needed to make to return to the winners circle this weekend were simple.
"It's still early days in the competition and every game in the NRL is tough," he said.
"Both the games we lost we were in positions to win during the last 20 minutes and we lost by two points.
"We made some basic errors last week against Parramatta and they hurt us. Any NRL team will hurt you if you keep knocking the ball on in tackle one or two, so we've just got to clean that up and we'll be all right."
After officially passing his concussion tests, the co-captain confirmed he was officially good to go.
"I'm really bad at watching football from the sidelines," Taylor remarked.
"I'm really passionate and a lot like Josh Reynolds over the last few weeks watching on.
"It's hard to stay still when you see so many things out on the field that you want to try and fix.
"I'm just very grateful to be back in the squad. It shows a lot of trust from Ivan Cleary in me that he would pick me despite how well the boys are going and he's definitely made some tough decisions in selection."
See what Elijah Taylor had to say in full about this week's game in the video above!
