Kidney: Buckley’s career could blossom at Sale

IRELAND coach Declan Kidney has said the onus is on Munster prop Tony Buckley to prove he’s worth a place in the Ireland squad following his signing for Sale Sharks, a transfer which has put the IRFU’s player management policy in the spotlight.

Buckley’s departure will deprive Munster of an experienced prop, but Fermoy native Mike Ross has overtaken him within the Ireland squad, and speculation on Ross transferring from Leinster to Munster is already at fever pitch.

However, Union sources insisted yesterday that decisions made on player deployment within the Irish provinces are jointly undertaken between the player, provinces, player advisory group and the IRFU itself, with no group having a veto over the other when it comes to the final decision.

Kidney accepted that Buckley’s career could blossom in England but noted the importance of having Irish players “in all the different positions” for the good of the national side.

“It’s possible that Tony’s career could blossom now, he’s just at the right age for a prop and I know that anytime we’ve worked with him over the past two years has been hugely beneficial. We always knew we had to bring guys through and that’s why we invested time in going to Canada and America to the Churchill Cup in which Tony would have played a lot of games, Mike (Ross) would have been there too.

“Tony was progressing at a faster pace than Mike at that time; then Mike took the decision to come home, it has been going well for him and he has been getting game time with Stan Wright’s unfortunate injury; by the looks of things he will have that challenge (Wright) when he (Ross) goes back to Leinster, and we will have to see, we need Irish guys playing in all the different positions to make the task of selection as difficult as possible.”

Kidney added that he would prefer if all Irish players were at home. “That gives coaches a much better chance to prepare, especially as we do camps outside the regular IRB window,” Kidney said yesterday.

Buckley has taken up a three-year deal with Sale while Caldwell will be in Bath for two years. In relation to Buckley, Kidney said there were different things involved in keeping players at home, the player, province and Union. “You’re hoping they (all) are able to put a deal to keep as many players at home as possible.

“Sometimes that’s not possible. we’ll keep a good eye on him and if he’s playing well and he’s the best Irish qualified prop playing then he will still play for Ireland. It has never worked (deliberately) against a guy if he goes abroad, but the truth is that you’re going to see the lads playing at home on average a lot more times than I’ll see others outside; in an average year I’d see a province play seven, eight or nine times a season live, plus the other games on television, I might get to see (a club like) Sale, once or twice. We’ll keep more of an eye on television of course, but there’s nothing like seeing a player live.” The IRFU confirmed yesterday that Buckley had been offered a 12-month contract.

Meanwhile Munster coach Tony McGahan insisted last night that Mike Ross has not been specifically courted by the province but admitted the Leinster prop is an obvious target based on necessity.

“There are rumours but they’re certainly not coming from within our camp,” McGahan said. “We know Mike has been there (Leinster) for two years, that his contract is up for renewal so, putting two and two together, there is an opportunity to move, but certainly we’re not aware of anything at this stage.

“In all these things there is a process to go through, between the IRFU and the provinces. From our point of view, any top-class Irish qualified prop has to be an option for us; there are not a lot of them in the country, looking around the provinces they’re a limited resource so if there is someone out there with the ability to come in then we’re interested. We actually need two, given the rules now where four props can be on the field nowadays in any given match.”