Rock still confident of World Darts Championship debut glory, hopes to gatecrash Premier League spots: "I believe now that's the monkey off my back"

In one of the most hotly anticipated World Championship debuts in recent years, Josh Rock showed glimpses of why he's touted as a future darting star in a 3-1 win over Jose Justicia. Full of confidence, Rock is backing himself to go all the way.

"I'm confident I'll have a good run here," Rock proclaims. "That's the monkey off my back. It's hard to win your first game having never played on that stage before. It doesn't matter who you're playing, you need to play your game."

Despite his victory however, Rock admits that he wasn't all that impressed with his performance. When asked to assess how he played, "not great," he bluntly replies. "93 average is not my game at all but at the same time everyone was saying the pressure was on me and I think I coped with it okay."

As mentioned, Rock's match was one of the most hotly anticipated World Championship debuts in a long while. Going into the tournament as many people's dark horse for overall victory it would be easy for the 21-year-old to feel overawed. Rock has a wise head on his young shoulders however and trying not to pay much attention to the hype-train building around him. "I just don't really look at it to be quite honest," he says. "If I start thinking about it and listening to people it will effect my game." Next up for Rock is another one of the sports future stars, Callan Rydz.