Old boy Buckle’s out to impress

YORKSHIRE CARNEGIE hooker Joe Buckle wants his side to prolong former club Jersey’s mini slump for at least one more week.

Carnegie have taken 18 points from the last five league fixtures to pull clear of the bottom two, while Jersey have lost their last three, after a club record 11-game winning run.

“They’ll be a good side and motivated to come here and put us under pressure,” said Buckle, a try-scorer in last week’s 33-15 win at Nottingham.

Playing on what Buckle describes as a ‘talent-stripper’ of a pitch, Carnegie used their rolling maul to good effect. “The wind was gusty and it was raining. We thought, we fancy this. We got our maul going and we bullied them really.”

Carnegie now need 30 points from a possible 40 to hit their mid-season goal.

“At Christmas we targeted 48 points (from 13 games). Mid-table is the best we can achieve so that’s what we’re aiming for.”

As one of four former Jersey players in the Carnegie ranks, 25-year-old Buckle admits motivation is never a problem when this fixture comes around.

“You don’t want to turn up and embarrass yourself, do you? It’ll be a good feeling if we can turn them over,” he said. “It’s going to be confrontational up front but they’ve also got some dangerous backs now.”

DoR Chris Stirling makes four changes, with Chris Elder, Nic Mayhew, Andy Foster and Matt Smith returning to the starting line up.

Jersey, who have never won at Headingley, make eight changes. In come front row trio Roy Godfrey, Charlie Maddison and Leeroy Atalifo, while Janco Venter returns to the back row. Will Homer, Mark Best, Koch Marx and Jason Worrall join the back line.