Following this weekend’s Celtic League matches things are as tight as ever for the third and fourth placed Irish sides in the competition. Ulster lost on Friday night against Cardiff despite having a huge amount of posession. Thankfully for Ulster today Connacht also lost against the Ospreys in Galway. Connacht may end up rueing not getting a bonus point with a missed conversion with only a few minutes left being the difference between them getting the point and not getting it.


Munster were yet again two different teams in the two havles of the match, being outclassed in the first half by the Borders but they scored four tries in the second half to win comfortably in the end.


There is only one week left in the Celtic League so it’s becoming clear who will qualify for Europe next season and also what seeds the various teams will have for the Celtic Cup.


At this stage 1,2 and 3 in the league have been decided with The Ospreys, Munster and Leinster all assured of home draws for the Celtic Cup. The race for positions 4,5,6 and 7 is extremely tight. Only 2 points separate the four sides. Llanelli lead the pack followed by The Dragons, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Finally the eight spot appears to be a race between Connacht and Ulster with Cardiff Blues also having a chance of picking up the eight spot.



Cardiff Blues will be more concerned with picking up the playoff spot however. This is between themselves and Connacht. Personally I think both Connacht and Cardiff will win their matches next week with Cardiff picking up a bonus point. This will put both teams level on points. The points difference between the two teams is currently only 10 points so it is still anyone’s spot.



Ulster face a trip to Llanelli. With Llanelli’s current form it is hard to see them losing. So they look like they will also be dragged into the fight for the playoff spot and the final Cetlic Cup qualification spot. It’s all extremely exciting. Connacht play on Saturday while the others play on Friday so Connacht definitely have the advantage in that regard.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 10th, 2005 at 10:55 am and is filed under Celtic League. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.