Ireland prop Tony Buckley is out of Samoa Test
Ireland prop Tony Buckley could miss the rest of the Autumn Internationals after he sustained a hip injury in Ireland s 21-23 defeat to South Africa at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday 6 November.
The Munster forward will definitely miss the Test against Samoa on Saturday 13 November and is doubtful for the games against New Zealand and Argentina.
Leinster prop Mike Ross has been called into the Irish squad as a replacement for Buckley and hooker Damien Varley, scrum-half Isaac Boss and centre Fergus McFadden have all been called up to the panel.
Tom Court who came on as a substitute for Buckley is expected to start the match against Samoa and is likely to start with Rory Best and Cian Healy in the front-row.
Ireland’s Rob Kearney is also a doubt for the Samoa match while forward John Muldoon has been released by Irish coach Declan Kidney so that he can play for Connaught against Samoa.
Out-half Ronan O’Gara is expected to replace Jonathan Sexton after his impressive display having featured as a second half substitute.
Ireland have lost four of their last six Test matches and their display against the Springboks will be a concern for Kidney.
O’Gara believes that his team must produce a convincing win over Samoa before they take on the All Blacks and Argentina.
"The better team won. We're disappointed—we can't be losing games like that at home if we want to be credible. We need to look at ourselves and there's an important two weeks coming up. We must regroup,”
said O’Gara at a press conference.
The Irish out-half admitted that a win was of the utmost importance for Ireland as there are only 12 internationals left before the World Cup. The Munster player insisted that Ireland’s losing streak was
not good enough.
"Six defeats is very disappointing so we need to get a result against Samoa," said O’Gara.
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