Buckley gets down to business

AT ONE stage, he enjoyed the good life to such an extent that his weight soared to more than 23 stone.

Realising the error of his ways, he completely changed his attitude to life and slimmed down to 18 stone.

Now, he is somewhere in between, a little over 21 stone of finely-honed Co Cork beef, and consequently he has reached a level of fitness that has brought him within touching distance of becoming tight head prop for Munster and Ireland.

Ironically, the individual standing in the way of Tony Buckley achieving his goal is John Hayes, his Shannon club mate he has idolised throughout his rugby career. The similarities between them are many.

Chief among them is their physique. Buckley stands 6 ft 5 tall, Hayes is an inch less and also weighs in around the 20-stone mark.

The poundage is not a problem for a prop forward. In many ways, it’s a case of the more the merrier. But there has long been a consensus that 6 ft 2 ins is the maximum height for a rugby player in the front-row of the scrum. Even though Hayes is making his 81st appearance for Ireland at the Stade de France this afternoon, there are those who still claim his scrummaging isn’t up to standard and that he and now Tony Buckley could struggle against opponents built lower to the ground.

“Warren O’Kelly of Clontarf is one of those, and he gave me an awful doing in my first season with Shannon but in the second year I got the better of him so it’s little progressions all the time with the smaller lads,” claims Buckley. “Now we have Federico (Pucciariello) in Munster. He’s a brilliant scrummager. He gives everyone a hard time. But every time you take him on, you improve.”

There are other similarities between the pair.

They live within three miles of each other in Co Limerick, Hayes in Cappamore, Buckley in Murroe. Hayes learned much from a stint in Invercargill in the southernmost part of New Zealand. Buckley also spent time in the land of the long white cloud as part of a rugby contingent from Newbridge College.

And now as Big John’s magnificent career nears an end, the natural perception is that Tony Buckley will succeed him in the number three jersey with both province and country. It’s a prospect that “Mushy” — as he has been known from around the age of 6 or 7 kicking a soccer ball around the fields of his native Newmarket, Co Cork — absolutely relishes.

It helps that he has a hugely supportive family. His partner, Elaine Collins, is a former Irish rugby international. They have a 20 month old son, Aidan, and a five month old daughter Ella, while back in Newmarket his parents Con and Mary and brothers David and Niall are among his greatest fans.

It all began for Tony Buckley about 11 years ago when he was a member of the Kanturk team that reached the final of the Munster Under-16 cup. He moved on to Newbridge for three years but also found time to travel to New Zealand, availing of an exchange arrangement between Auckland Grammar and his own college.

After school, he had overtures from several clubs but chose Shannon, a decision he doesn’t regret even if a dislocated shoulder followed by back trouble stunted his progress for almost a year.

“Shannon is a good countryman’s club in a city,” he reasons. “Mick

Galwey, Alan Quinlan, Anthony Foley, they were all good countrymen. I just wanted to go where I’d find my kind of people. Up in Leinster schools, it’s D4 accents and all that. You don’t feel part of it because you’re from the country. I just wanted to go back to the kind of people I knew.”

He quickly learned how to enjoy student life at the Limerick Institute of Technology and ballooned up to 23 stone!

“I was an awful sight, I was desperate fat and I’d never been fat before,” he admits. “That was the first year. But I hardly went out at all in the second, I watched the diet and trained a hell of a lot. I was in a house with a few

Shannon lads, Karl Sutcliffe, Johnny Davis, Tom Hayes and we had a big circuit on the road around Thomond Park. We’d run it twice a week and I also trained three nights with Shannon and went down to 18 stone.”

Clinching his place on any team has never come easy for Tony Buckley. Even in his second year out of school, he was only a sub for Shannon under 20s and played with the club’s 2nds and 3rds.

“It was then that I started propping,” he recalled. “I suppose with John Hayes being at Shannon, they saw the same template in me in height and weight. I had a conversation with Pat Cross and Eddie Price of the Munster under 20s and they saw me as a tight head. I was in denial and I said, no, no, I’m a second row, I’m not playing tight head. But the writing was on the wall. I had to play tight head if I wanted to play serious rugby.”

There were a lot of experienced front rowers in Shannon like Noel Healy and James Hickey and their advice and help were invaluable. Tony’s father Con (who retired from the game only a couple of years ago having played with Bohemians and Charleville) was also up to speed in the art of propping while nowadays he laps up the assistance of Paul Buckley at Munster and Shamie Harty from Nenagh, a man who has built up a reputation as an expert in front-row forward play.

Connacht noted his potential in 2004 and after a year there, Declan Kidney came calling. Tony still had to be patient with Hayes and Freddie Pucciariello ahead of him in the Munster pecking order.

“You’d stand there holding tackle bags for the whole season and you might get a few minutes on the pitch and then the internationals came back and you were gone again,” he says. “On top of that, I damaged my pelvis, I had excruciating pain at times and I was out for eight months.”

Surprisingly, considering his current status, Buckley began his first Magners League game as recently as last February and now finds it difficult to believe how his fortunes have improved. He made two appearances as a substitute for Ireland on the summer tour of Argentina, got a call up for the last week of the World Cup and this season has had a reasonable amount of game time — and highly impressive it has been, too — with Munster and Ireland.

“Here I am now subbing for my country against France in the Six Nations and I can hardly believe it,” he says. “I couldn’t believe it in May either when they announced the squad for Argentina. I was over the moon.

“Then John and the others went off to the World Cup and I was starting Magners games. Munster were flying it and winning games. I don’t think it has all sunk in yet … people asking what it’s like to play for Ireland in Croke Park … standing out there for the anthems, I couldn’t believe that. Normally I’d be at home in my mother’s house watching the game.

“People say I’m the new John Hayes although in some ways I think we’re different sorts of players. I’m comfortable carrying and off loading. I enjoy fighting for possession at ruck time and in mauls. I’m 21 and a half stone and it would be easier if you were lighter but I’m mad fit and I can carry what I have around. My body composition has changed an awful lot, I’ve lost a bit of fat and put on a lot of muscle. It’s a great life and I love it.”