Ulster beat the Llanelli Scarlets by 16 points to 3 to seal eight spot in the Celtic League and more importantly guarentee themselved Heineken Cup Rugby next season.


Ulster are now 7 points ahead of Connacht who must beat the Dragons and gain a bonus point tomorrow, to have any chance of gaining Heineken Cup qualification next year. A bonus point win would put them ahead of Cardiff and ensure them a playoff against an Italian side for the extra Heineken Cup spot.

Ulster will now travel to face The Ospreys in the quarter finals of the Celtic Cup.

Today continued to be a busy news day with the announcement from Leinster that they would be signing England and Wasps prop Will Green. The signing is clearly intended to strengthen up Leinster’s front five which has come in for a lot of critism recently.

In some other news today, the stupid idea of a combined ‘Celtic Tigers’ side appears to have gone cold.

Finally Munster have announced their side for this weekend’s Celtic League match, which is the last one of the season.

This weekend is crucial for Connacht and Ulster with regard to their Heineken Cup chances and both sides seem to be prepared for that. Ulster look like they are well on their way to having a big crowd at their game V Llanelli. Should Ulster win they will be certain of a Heineken Cup place next season, but if they lose, it is quite possible that they could miss out on the Heineken Cup. Coach Mark McCall has named a side that is unchanged from the one that lost last weekend to Cardiff.

Meanwhile Connacht are still looking for results to go their way so that they will be able to play in the Heineken Cup next season. Connacht have to travel to Rodney Parade to face the Dragons, but they’ll be pleased by the Dragons recent poor form and will be looking for a win against the Welshmen. Coach Michael Bradley has named a 24 man squad for the match due to the fact that two of his squad a carrying knocks and their inclusion in the final 22 will be dependant on them passing a fitness test.

Leinster have named their side for the match against Glasgow on Saturday night, both Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy are in the starting line up giving people a sneak preview of what the Lions centre partnership will hopefully be. Meanwhile Leinster are planning to spend €500,000 over the summer to avoid the ‘Donnybrook Dustbowl’ senario that occured this season.

Following Ireland’s dissapointing showing in this year’s Six Nations, many commentators had felt that the number of Irish Lions would be far lower than first expected. However Ireland instead following today’s announcement are represented well in the squad of 44. There are 11 Irish men on the squad and also Brian O’Driscoll will be the captain of the team when they play their first game against Argentina in Wales on May 23rd.

Lions Squad:

Backs: I Balshaw (England), G Murphy (Ireland), J Robinson (England), G Thomas (Wales), S Williams (Wales), J Lewsey (England), S Horgan (Ireland), D Hickie (Ireland), T Shanklin (Wales), B O’Driscoll (Ireland, capt), G Henson (Wales), O Smith (England), G D’Arcy (Ireland), W Greenwood (England), S Jones (Wales), R O’Gara (Ireland), C Hodgson (England), M Dawson (England), D Peel (Wales), G Cooper (Wales), C Cusiter (Scotland).


Forwards: G Rowntree (England), A Sheridan (England), M Stevens (England), G Jenkins (Wales), J White (England), J Hayes (Ireland), G Bulloch (Scotland), S Thompson (England), A Titterrell (England), S Byrne (Ireland), D Grewcock (England), B Kay (England), M O’Kelly (Ireland), D O’Callaghan (Ireland), P O’Connell (Ireland), M Owen (Wales), R Hill (England), N Back (England), M Williams (Wales), L Moody (England), S Taylor (Scotland), M Corry (England), L Dallaglio (England).

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 weekend sees Munster take on The Borders in Scotland while in Galway Connacht will face this year’s league winners, The Ospreys. The Connacht match is on Setanta Ireland which is what NTL subscribers and Sky Subscribers in Ireland recieve. Thankfully for Munster fans there is a way to get Setanta UK and watch the Munster match.

• Press The Services Button on Your Remote
• Go to 4 - System Setup
• Go to 4 - Add Channels
• Enter the Following Details:
  • Frequency: 11.222
  • Polarisation: H
  • Symbol Rate: 27.5
  • FEC: 2/3
• Now Press Find Channels
• Highlight Setanta Sports and press the yellow button
• Now Press Select Twice
• To View Setanta UK Press Services on your remote followed by 6, this will allow you to view setanta.

Following yesterday’s confirmation that Declan Kidney would be leaving the province, today brings the confirmation that flanker Shane Jennings is set to leave for Leicester.


The 23 year old is looking forward to the challenge. It has been rumoured that Jennings was upset at having been left out of the Leinster starting line-up for last weekend’s clash with Leicester having been dropped in favour of Keith Gleeson who has recently returned from injury.

Today has been an extremely busy day in terms of Irish Rugby news with changes happening all round, mainly to do with Declan Kidney’s switch from Leinster to Munster.


As was widely reported yesterday Declan Kidney is the new Munster coach. This was officially announced today. Along with this announcement came the news that Kidney would cease being Leinster coach with immediate effect. One has to wonder what would have happened had Leinster won last weekend.


In other Munster news, Alan Gaffney has decided to try out some of the province’s up and coming talent this weekend in Munster’s match against the Borders in Scotland. Paul Devlin, Frank Murphy and Stephen Keogh all come into the starting line-up.



While Munster and Leinster have been trying to sign new coaches, Ulster have been busy offering contracts to Ireland’s future stars. They today announced they had offered four contracts to members of Ireland’s Under-21 squad.


The only other item of interest is that Ulster will be without David Humphreys on Friday night for their Celtic League clash with Cardiff.

Following yesterday’s interviews for the job of Munster coach, it is being widely reported that Declan Kidney is the new Munster coach. Kidney left Munster to become Ireland assistant coach three years ago and became Leinster coach last August.


The news has been greeted with mixed emotions by Munster fans some of whom question whether Kidney brought the team as far as he could. On the otherhand Leinster fans appear to be very angry at what they see as betrayal by Kidney.

With last weekend’s dissapointing events hopefully fading quickly from everyone’s memories, it’s time to return to the Celtic League where qualifying position for the Heineken Cup and for the Celtic Cup are still left to be decided. Mark McCall has named his Ulster side to take on Cardiff.

Ulster will be desperate to get a good win to put some daylight between themselves and Connacht in the race for the third Heineken Cup spot.