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Denis Buckley: Connacht's scrum turning into a major weapon

Denis Buckley has never scrummaged so much. Which is quite something for a prop who is in his 12th season as a professional.

But all that hard work is certainly paying off. With a 95% success rate, Connacht boast the fourth-best scrum in the BKT United Rugby Championship, and the best of the Irish provinces.

Colm 'Cullie' Tucker took over as scrum and contact coach as part of Connacht's coaching rejig during the summer and Buckley says the Limerickman has brought their set-up "up another level".

It was the Connacht scrum that lay the platform against Munster last month in Galway, where two early penalties put the Westerners on course for their first victory of the season.

Now they will try to replicate that at Thomond Park on Saturday as they target a fourth win over their neighbours in five attempts.

"It has gone well, we’ve put a lot of time and effort into the scrum," Buckley told RTÉ Sport. "In that first game [of the season] against Ulster maybe we didn’t quite get it right and do some of the things we’d been working on.

"But this season so far, it’s probably the most time I’ve spent scrummaging. We just put more time into it than other years and I think that’s starting to be reflected out on the pitch in games. It’s starting to turn into a big weapon for us.

"The last time we played Munster it was a big part of winning that game. Obviously it’s an area we want to use as a weapon every week.

"Munster have a good scrum and it’s an area they’ll probably be targeting as well. We’re under no illusions about that, that we’ll just go and it’ll happen for us. We have to make it happen.

"It’s something we’ve spoken about and put a lot of time into, and we’re starting to see the benefits."

Buckley, 32, has featured in all seven of

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