Eleven-test Kiwis forward Elijah Taylor has signed a two-year deal with English Super League club Salford just weeks after the New Zealand High Court ruled his former manager had misappropriated $400,000 from the NRL player.
Taylor, 30, joins the Salford Red Devils after being released by NRL club Wests Tigers at the end of the 2020 season.
The former Warriors favourite said he had “spoken to a few of the players who I know, and Salford sounds like a great club”.
“I’m looking forward to the opportunity of playing at Salford, ripping into training and living over there.
“I’ve been following Salford over the last two years and have always wanted to play in the Super League at some stage. Speaking with Rich [coach Richard Marshall], I’m excited about playing for the club.”
Taylor, who made 186 NRL first grade appearances, played with Salford’s Krisnan Inu and Sebastine Ikahihifo at the Warriors and with Red Devils standoff Tui Lolohea at Wests Tigers.
Marshall said his new recruit has “the quality to have a massive impact on this team with his actions on and off the field.
“He already has a good relationship with Tui from their time at Wests Tigers, and I’m looking forward to seeing them play together in Salford shirts.
“I also think Elijah’s experience on the world stage will make him a great influence on the rest of our pack, and in particular our younger players.”
Salford, based in Greater Manchester, were runners-up in the 2019 Super League final and the 2020 Challenge Cup final.
Their director of rugby Ian Blease described Taylor as a “world-class talent’’ whose “presence makes our pack look even more imposing going into next season and beyond’’.
“This signing is a statement of our intent, and I am sure will fill our supporters with excitement for his first match in Salford colours.”
Taylor, who can play loose forward, second row or hooker, made his NRL debut for the Warriors in 2011 after captaining the Junior Warriors to the National Youth Competition title.
He won his first Kiwis caps in 2011 and started at loose forward in the Kiwis’ Rugby League World Cup final defeat to Australia in 2013. He scored a try, from hooker, in his last Kiwis appearance, against Scotland at the 2017 World Cup.
Taylor transferred to the Penrith Panthers in 2014 and two years later moved to Wests Tigers where he became a co-captain.
He played 11 games in 2020 – nine off the bench – but was among a cluster of players released by Wests Tigers and Kiwis coach Michael Maguire at the end of the season.
Taylor took legal action against his former manager, Christchurch-based Ian Miles, with the High Court ruling last month that Miles had misappropriated $400,000 from the NRL player over a four-year period.
Taylor told the New Zealand Herald this week that he felt betrayed by a man who had been his mentor since he was a teenager at the Warriors.
“How could it be possible? How could someone do this – someone who was like my father. I trusted him so much. I trusted him more than anyone else in my life,’’ Taylor said.
Miles issued a statement to the New Zealand Herald saying he denied misappropriating funds from Taylor and was in therapy after “several health issues over the last four years’’.
However, High Court judge Jan-Marie Doogue ruled Miles had abused Taylor’s trust and ordered him to pay $25,000 in general damages and court costs of $28,750, with sums of $A340,112 and $17,909 awarded to Taylor.
Taylor told the Herald he had little hope of receiving any money.