Buckley fighting fit after illness nightmare

A FEW weeks ago Tony Buckley must have wondered what he had done to upset the rugby gods.

The big prop was out of favour with Munster and found himself lining out for Shannon on a series of cold, wet Saturday afternoons of All-Ireland League action. But that wasn’t the only annoyance. There was also the unexplained loss of energy, the constant tiredness and the worry which was making Buckley miserable with every passing day.

He revealed: “I was feeling low for over a month, I had no energy, was exhausted after training. I would sleep for three hours, a feat in itself when you have two young kids, and I just couldn’t explain why. I tried to train and play my way through it but I wasn’t doing myself any favours.

“I knew I was playing badly but there was nothing I could do; the more I tried the worse it got, at training I could hardly even catch or hold a ball. I just about got by with my scrummaging but I could do nothing else right. It was a case of one negative on top of another.”

A series of blood tests revealed Buckley was suffering from a type of pneumonia which was successfully treated.

“Thank God it’s over now because it was driving me crazy not to know the cause of the problem. I played four games in that time and I must say I wasn’t playing very well. I can understand where Tony (McGahan) was coming from. He could only select what was in front of him and It’s fair to say I really was playing badly,” he said.

Buckley bounced back quickly, and Declan Kidney had no hesitation in handing his old Munster colleague a front row start against Canada on Saturday. The Cork man admits he is benefiting from the new regime and heaps praise on forwards coach Gert Smal.

“His techniques are fantastic, he’s really in-depth and organised, he has a huge technical knowledge of set pieces and has introduced a variety of innovative drills; everyone is really tuned in with the training methods and hopefully it will all come together on the pitch against Canada,” he said.

Buckley gets his chance on the back of John Hayes’ exclusion and despite their friendship — the two live close by and often go shooting together — he aims to retain the national jersey alongside Marcus Horan and Jerry Flannery.

Yet, he is aware that Hayes is unlikely to yield his place in the side easily. “He is playing great rugby at the minute and all I can do is to go out and play to the best of my ability, really give it 100 per cent. If that’s good enough to keep me there then so be it,” he said.

One way or another, Buckley is looking forward to lining out against the touring New Zealanders.

If he doesn’t get the call for Ireland on Saturday week, then he hopes it will be for Munster the following Tuesday.

He had 30 minutes game time against the All Blacks in the summer tour — enjoying the challenge but not the result. “I’d like the opportunity of having another lash off them,” he said.

But for now, his focus is on Canada, whom he believes have to be given due respect. “We won’t treat them lightly, they have a couple of games behind them and will be well prepared. We expect it to be a tough, physical, game, I just hope we can translate all of the very positive training of the last couple of weeks into a match situation.”