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Saw this on MF.com, makes interesting reading.
Buckley bouncing back from the ‘lowest of the low’
By Diarmuid O’Flynn
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
YOU’RE a professional rugby player, a tight-head prop, hyped as the next big thing in your position, gradually pushing at club and national level the legend whose jersey you intend to take.
It’s the beginning of a new season, pay-off time, and suddenly, without warning it all implodes. From explosive man mountain â€" 6’5" and 20st 7lbs of raw aggression â€" you are reduced to a mountainous mass. No energy, no power, no strength, and the criticism starts to mount.
For Munster’s Tony Buckley last season it was the worst of times, until finally the fault was found.
"It was the lowest of the low," he explained yesterday in UL at the launch of a new range of Lucozade performance products.
"I was trying to play games, trying to psyche myself to play a big game and I was just getting worse and worse every time, and people were getting on your case, saying you’re not playing well. You’re beating yourself up at home and you are just constantly awake at night.
"I didn’t know what was wrong with me. I thought it was in my head, that it was nutrition or training or whatever. It was just really frustrating because I didn’t know what it was.
"Physically I was just messed up and when you are so tired, you can’t concentrate. Having three kids as well didn’t help but the missus â€" Elaine Collins â€" was good there, she was sending me to bed in the afternoon with the kids for my two hours sleep. I was just so tired, I was sleeping ten-twelve hours a night and two hours a day. It was hell, really."
A living hell for a man who plied his wares on power and strength and it reached the stage where those at the amateur level, where Buckley once more found himself with Shannon began to take liberties.
"We played Garryowen (Shannon’s greatest rivals) in the Charity Cup final, up in Thomond Park â€" it was a bit of a disaster for me, I could have played much better, but didn’t.
"You’re trying to prove a point and you don’t have the energy or the strength to stick it in their face."
And the slagging?
"There was a bit said but sure you wouldn’t take any notice of it â€" it was sort of like kicking you when you were down, like."
Eventually, and mercifully, the problem was diagnosed â€" glandular fever, a weakening, debilitating viral disease. Immediately Buckley felt better, or, perhaps more accurately: "Relieved, in a way, because I knew it wasn’t something wrong with me mentally."
Since that diagnosis he hasn’t looked back, and though a torrid season-opener at scrum-time in Munster’s Magners League loss away to Glasgow was a setback, a destructive performance alongside front row colleagues Marcus Horan and Denis Fogarty in last Sunday’s win over Newport Gwent Dragons in Musgrave Park has the smile very firmly back on his face.
"The scrums were good, which is great for us after starting off so poorly against Glasgow. We didn’t get a whole lot of scrummaging time before that match â€" we went out then and the Glasgow tactics totally threw us off.
"We got no help from the referee so it was a disaster. But after that we all just pulled together; we got our scrum sorted out in terms of balance and calls, timing issues were sorted out, and it has gone on from there.
"Cardiff (Blues, a win) was good for us scrum-wise, against the (Llanelli) Scarlets (and another win) we were happy that we disrupted the scrum on their own line and we scored a try. Against the Dragons I think we scored three out of our five tries off the scrum so it’s getting better."
Indeed it is. One swallow doesn’t a summer make, of course, and Buckley himself realises that; the position in which he plays is probably the most individually confrontational in rugby â€" perhaps even in any team sport â€" and fortunes can fluctuate from week to week.
This weekend Munster come up against Leinster, and if Buckley makes an appearance off the bench at some stage, or even if he happens to be chosen ahead of John Hayes (a prospect that even he accepts is unlikely â€" "Once I get my own game up to standard I can push him, but at the moment I don’t think I’m pushing too hard"), he’ll come up against a guy setting the front row world on fire in recent months, loosehead Cian Healy.
"He’s a good lad," says Buckley, "He’s incredibly strong â€" I’ve seen him in the gym lifting incredible weights. I’ve played against him two or three times and got on alright."
Last time the provinces met, in the Heineken Cup semi-final just a few months ago (seems more like last year than last season, doesn’t it?), Healy played a major role in Leinster’s win, had a superb afternoon at scrum-time.
Incredibly, Healy won’t be 22 until October 7, a day before Buckley celebrates his 29th birthday, and since that match back in early May he has become even more powerful. Whether it be John Hayes or Tony Buckley, Munster will face some challenge in trying to subdue the dynamic Clontarf man.
For Buckley, however, at least there is the knowledge that he is now back almost at full throttle.
This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/buckley-bouncing-back-fro m-the-lowest-of-the-low-102087.html#ixzz0T5w5csj0[/b]
Saw this on MF.com, makes interesting reading.
