Taylor reveals he received hate mail after Saints lost to London Irish

Taylor was seen as the villain by some after his side squandered a lead to lose 20-16 at Franklin's Gardens.

The former Saracens man had come off the bench late on and it was his clearance kick that was charged down to help Dave Porecki pounce for a winning try for Irish.

Saints will look to avenge that disappointing defeat on Saturday, as they face Irish at the Twickenham Stoop in the second match since the resumption of the Gallagher Premiership season.

And ahead of that game, Taylor has been speaking about the criticism he received online earlier this year.

"I hate hate mail on Instagram after that box kick was charged down and we lost the game at the end," Taylor said. "Not great memories for me, but that's the game."

And when quizzed further about those messages, Taylor said: "We had a week off after that and I landed in Paris and had a few Instagram messages from fans.

"They were clearly very passionate and they felt like they would give me some coaching tips.

"As rugby players, you do have a responsibility and you're going to get those serious fans who think they know better.

"You're never doing it (making mistakes) on purpose - you're just playing the game.

"I don't really know how to react to those messages - I just kind of laugh them off and close them down.

"Because if you're constantly living and breathing and working in rugby, when you get your time off you try to close those social networks off - I do, especially - and have some time away from it."

So does Taylor try to use messages to fuel his performances?

"I definitely don't think it gives you any extra in your performances or helps you in any way," the 26-year-old said.

Overall, however, Taylor has largely received praise from Saints supporters.

He started the season superbly following his switch from Saracens and was one of the club's key players as they sat close to the top of the Premiership table.

"The majority of stuff around Saints is incredible and the support from the sponsors to the every day fan is fantastic," said Taylor, who has scored three tries in 15 appearances for Saints.

"We were talking about stats when we came back in after lockdown and the amount of season ticket holders who had renewed their season tickets not even knowing when the next season was going to start was incredible. Nobody could believe it.

"It shows the loyalty of the fans here.

"Overall, rugby fans are great - I'm not holding it against them when I have a bad game.

"I just have to park it and move on."

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you