ORANGE star Charmaine Buckley will be back packing the scrum on Saturday when she returns to the representative fold.
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Participating in the 2014 NSW Country Women’s Rugby Championship this weekend, Buckley expressed her excitement at being back on the field for Central West.
“I’m definitely excited to have a go and I’m hoping we can bring it all together for the day,” she said.
“We’ve had a few training sessions as a group, so our preparation is probably better than in previous years. I’m pretty confident we have a good group.”
Central West, Central North and Hunter are the three outfits set to compete for the country title at Orange’s Endeavour Oval today.
Hunter have proven to be fierce contenders in previous years.
“Obviously Hunter are always a strong side, however, we still don’t know what they’re going to bring this year. So we’ll go out, give it our all and possibly even come away with the title,” Buckley said.
After the last-minute loss of two stand-out players this year, Vanessa Foliaki and Rebecca Trethowan, Buckley says teamwork will be key.
“We’ll really be focusing on working as a unit to get the job done,”she said.
Central West coach Amanda Ferguson expects Buckley to be of great value to this year’s side.
“Charmaine will provide some great leadership and expertise in the forward pack, not to mention experience in scrummage,” Ferguson said.
Buckley’s inclusion is positive news for her team-mates as she will provide direction for her side on the day.
“Although we’re experiencing some last minute restructure due to players being unavailable, we’re still going to go out, have fun and we will be competitive,” Ferguson said.
The first game of today’s country championships is set to kick-off at 9am at Endeavour Oval.