Scott Taylor remembers the moment well, although his family would probably be quick to help him forget it. Taylor admits that lifting the Challenge Cup with Wigan in 2013 was among the highlights of his career but by beating Hull in the process – the club he supported as a boy and the team he now represents with pride – it was a mixture of pleasure and pain for some.
“I’m not too sure how my family felt in the immediate aftermath of it all,” the 25-year-old says. “They were all sat in the FC end with Hull shirts on but that’s not my problem, I guess.”
Eight years before that, Taylor was in attendance as Hull won the cup for the third time, beating Leeds at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. “Yeah, I was there,” he says. “I was in the stands with a Hull shirt, I had this black and white wig on my head with all my family.”
Now, over a decade on from being the teenager cheering Hull and three years removed from inflicting a 16-0 defeat on FC at Wembley, Hull and Taylor finally have the opportunity to make history together.
The Challenge Cup is never short of coincidences and, as luck would have it, the team standing between FC and a return to the final is Wigan.
“It wasn’t a bittersweet day to be honest, it was a brilliant one for me,” Taylor says. “It didn’t matter who I did it against; to be 22 and lifting the cup was special. But to do it with my hometown team? It would be twice as good. They all knew it was my job and I had to do what I had to do on that day, but it’ll all be forgotten come Friday if we win.”
While lifting at least one trophy this year with Hull is the minimum they should be aiming for in Taylor’s eyes – “If we don’t have a trophy to show for what we’ve done this year it’s an unsuccessful season” – the desire to make a mark in the history books by winning the cup with Hull is obvious.
Having been brought up on a strict diet of Hull FC, Taylor is painfully aware of the club’s history with Wembley. Their three cup wins came in Cardiff 11 years ago, Leeds in 1982 and Halifax in 1914. Seven trips to the final when it has been at Wembley have resulted in seven defeats, a hoodoo Taylor is desperate to consign to the past.
“When I signed here it was one of the things I thought about more than most others: getting to Wembley with Hull and winning in the national stadium,” he says.
“I’d love to change our past and our history when it came to Hull and help us win at Wembley – it’s time to get that rubbish story out of the way and in the past.”
Despite the euphoria of three years ago, Taylor already envisages success this year with the club he holds so close to his heart eclipsing anything he achieved with Wigan.
“My family would all be there again – this time they’d be cheering me on – and it would be a dream come true, that’s the only way to describe it,” Taylor says. “I was lucky enough to win a double at Wigan but anything I do here will be more special.”
Hull will welcome back the stand-off Carlos Tuimavave for Friday’s semi-final at Doncaster’s Keepmoat Stadium, while Wigan, who have lost their past two games, are without the prop Frank-Paul Nu’uausala. He is suspended after his punch against St Helens. There are also doubts over fellow forward Dom Crosby, who has an elbow injury.
