Buckley eager to show his credentials

FOLLOWING Mike Ross into the number three jersey after such a heroic effort against Australia may be a hard act to follow but Tony Buckley would be delighted to get the opportunity.

Buckley, who joined Sale in the summer from Munster, is set to get the tight head’s role in the Ireland front row for Sunday’s Pool C match against Russia in Rotorua and he is eager to prove his worth after some stinging criticism over his inclusion in Declan Kidney’s 30-man squad.

Still, after the way the front row of Cian Healy, Rory Best and Ross dominated their Wallabies counterparts in Saturday’s 15-6 victory at Eden Park, he will join a scrummaging unit for which the bar has been set extremely high.

“It was brilliant,” Buckley said of the massive effort against the Australians. “I was recording all the scrums with the video camera and had an up close view of every one of them and there was great timing, top notch and you won’t get much better than that. It was very, very good. The eight working together, timing with the second rows, back rows; lads knowing what to do and when to do it, it was just very well run.”

There is though, a flip side to such a sterling effort.

“It’s a little disheartening,” Buckley admitted. “I haven’t had much time at tight head this year, it’s been mostly loose head and I’ve only had 50 or 60 minutes at tight head. It makes you hungry to get back on the field and try and get some games under your belt and play well and show them that you’re not as bad as the media portrays you.”

He revealed: “I just try and play my own game and get my own stuff together and try and play as well as I can and get some form. Things will come together then.”

Buckley has already seen some action at this World Cup, replacing Tom Court at loose head for the final quarter hour of the extremely physical contest against the USA in New Plymouth on September 11.

Yet he was only on a short while before he shipped a bang on the shoulder. “I was on two minutes and got hurt and I was limited in what I could do.

“I had 13 minutes flapping around. Now I’m looking forward to getting a good run.”