Needs must as versatile Taylor cuts her cloth

SPORTING PASSIONS KATIE TAYLORThe world champion boxer and Ireland soccer international tells Mark Roddenabout having to choose from a variety of interests

I WAS playing five or six different sports at the age of 11. There was boxing, football, athletics, Gaelic, camogie - I think I was doing nearly everything at that age.

I would have been big into all the sports that I tried. I used to love the athletics and Gaelic but my two best sports were football and boxing.

With the athletics I was doing sprints - 100 metres, 200 metres, and the 400 metres as well. I used to love those races. I raced in the Community Games in Wicklow, and in the Leinster and All-Irelands as well.

I played with Fergal Ogs in Gaelic and I was on the Wicklow team up to under-14s. I played in midfield or centre-half forward. I still watch it and I love when the All-Ireland Championship is on.

I loved watching Wicklow this summer and I think Mick O'Dwyer is doing brilliantly with them. I like watching the Dubs playing as well.

At the age of 13 or 14 I narrowed the sports down to football and boxing and then from 17 onwards boxing became my number-one sport.

I still play a bit of football now and again but not as much as I used to.

I was playing football with the lads in the Wicklow League up to under-14s. There weren't really many women's teams back then so I had to play with the lads a lot.

I was used to it and everybody in the Wicklow League knew me anyway so it wasn't awkward at all.

I played in central midfield and it was tough. I found it harder every year and when I was stepping up to under-14s, the lads were getting a bit physically stronger and a lot bigger as well. It was getting hard at that stage but I always competed with them.

But I had to stop playing with the lads after that because I wasn't allowed to play with them anymore.

I've supported Leeds United since I was a child. My father's from Leeds so I had to support them really. There have been bad times recently. I thought they were going to win the play-off against Doncaster but unfortunately they lost 1-0 and didn't get promoted.

Mostly I've had bad memories of supporting them the last few years, with them being relegated a couple of times.

It's getting harder and harder to balance the boxing and football each year. With all the boxing tournaments that I have I can't play club football anymore really. I kind of have to pick one or two or a couple of international games during the year that I can play.

Even when I go back to the football now, I'm not really as sharp as I used to be or as sharp as the other girls because I'm not playing that much.

But I'll try to keep it up for as long as I can because I think I would miss it terribly if I left it completely.

Football makes a great change from the boxing. Boxing is such an individual sport and you're on your own all the time.

I love going back into team sport with the football and seeing all the girls again. You have a great laugh with the girls and I think that's important as well - it's one of the most enjoyable parts of it really.

I don't really get that many injuries with the boxing, just little hand injuries or niggles here and there, but I always come off the football pitch with a little ankle injury or a knee injury or something like that. You can get injuries so much more easily in football, I suppose.

The women's game is definitely getting better. Even looking at the underage players coming up for Ireland, the under-17 and the under-19s teams are the best players I've ever seen coming up.

I think in the next few years we'll definitely be competing against some of the best teams in the world because of the underage players coming up.

The team is getting stronger and stronger every year. You see the three Arsenal girls - Ciara Grant, Emma Byrne and Yvonne Tracy - on the team as well; they won the quadruple last year and I think that's given Irish football a huge boost.

Where we are at the moment, I think we've improved so much in the last few years with Noel King as manager and we're definitely getting closer to qualifying for the big tournaments.