Celtic League (rugby union)

The Celtic League is an annual rugby union competition involving regional sides from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. It is one of the three major leagues in Europe, along with the English Guinness Premiership and the French TOP 14.

The Celtic League season currently consists of a 22 weekend calendar which takes place between September and May. Celtic League matches avoid the traditional international weekends in November and during the Six Nations Championship. The Welsh, Irish and Scottish rugby unions now use the Celtic League as the sole determinant for European qualification and seeding.

History

Wales and Scotland had joined forces for the 1999 and 2000 seasons, with the expansion of the Welsh Premier Division to include Edinburgh and Glasgow under the name Welsh-Scottish League.

In 2001 an agreement was made between the Irish Rugby Football Union, Scottish Rugby Union and Welsh Rugby Union to create a new competition which would bring in the four Irish provinces. 2001 would see the very first incarnation of the Celtic League.

Some saw the competition as the forerunner of a British / Irish league with teams from England also taking part. The WRU had previously negotiated with the Rugby Football Union to form an Anglo-Welsh league but negotiations had broken down over how many teams from each union would take part.

2001/02

The first season would see fifteen teams compete the four Irish provinces (Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster), two Scottish teams (Edinburgh Reivers and Glasgow) and all nine Welsh Premier Division teams (Bridgend, Caerphilly, Cardiff, Ebbw Vale, Llanelli, Neath, Newport, Pontypridd and Swansea).

Played alongside each country's own national competitions, the teams were split into two groups (of 8 and 7) and played a series of round-robin matches with each team playing the other only once. The top four teams from each group proceeded into the knock-out phase until a champion was found. Clashes between teams in the Welsh-Scottish League also counted towards the new competition.

The 2001/2002 competition was dominated by the Irish teams with all four sides reaching the last eight, three progressing to the semi-finals, and the thrilling final played at Lansdowne Road contested between Leinster and Munster with the Dublin boys running out 24-20 winners.

2002/03

The demands of the Celtic league led to the Scottish / Welsh league being abandoned in 2002. The Irish interprovincial championship was also downgraded.

The second (2002/03) season's format was identical except for the addition of a third Scottish side, the newly re-established Scottish Borders.

2003/04

A major change in Celtic League philosophy came during the early part of 2003, partly due to the commercial success of the league itself but mostly because of the Welsh Regional Rugby's financial constraints that left Wales with only five fully professional clubs. It was decided that the Celtic League would become the sole professional league of the three countries, incorporating all four Irish, three Scottish and the five new Welsh (Cardiff Blues, Celtic Warriors, Llanelli Scarlets, Neath-Swansea Ospreys and Newport Gwent Dragons).

Reformatted into a traditional league competition (round-robin style, all clubs play each other twice, once home, once away), which meant that a season long 22-round match program was launched, and with a new strength in depth due to the amalgamation of Welsh teams and the continuing strengthening of Irish and Scottish teams through the re-signing and retention of star players, the league has been in rugby terms a success. Also introduced for the 2003/04 season was the Celtic Cup, a straight knock-out cup competition between the 12 Celtic League teams.

However the unfortunate timing of the league's launch and poor organisation of a working calendar meant that first the 2003 Rugby World Cup and later the RBS Six Nations Championship prevented many of the league's top stars from playing in over half the games. This meant that commercially the league has struggled, especially regarding the newly adopted regions in Wales where the game has always traditionally been played on a club basis, not having the regional histories of Ireland or Scotland.

2004/05

The league format was further refined at the end of the 2003/04 season, with the participants deciding to better manage the dates of the matches so as to not interfere with the national squad set-ups and to make the league more commercially viable. The league was played until April and then the Celtic Cup competition was contested amongst the top eight teams of the league.

However even the prospect of the improved league structure wasn't enough to keep all the competitors viable with the liquidation of the Celtic Warriors region by the WRU, which meant that starting in 2004/05, Wales would have only four entrants in a league of eleven teams.

The new format took the league into what many saw as a make-or-break season, clear of massive distractions such as the Rugby World Cup. With the Welsh regions partly embedded, the signs were that the Celtic League would be a competition that could continue for many years to come.

The 2004/5 season was the first season that Ireland agreed to use the Celtic League standings to determine which provinces would enter the Heineken Cup. The IRFU favoured Leinster and Munster over Ulster and Connacht since they contributed the bulk of the Ireland national team. A consequence of this was that Irish provinces often fielded virtual second teams for Celtic League games and put their first team out only for Heineken Cup games as the results did not really matter. This had a knock-on effect of devaluing the competition.

There was an announcement that a 'Rainbow Cup' would replace the Celtic Cup with 4 Italian sides and 9 South African provincial sides alongside the Celtic League sides. If this were to take place Italian sides might join an expanded Celtic League.

2005/06

In 2005, there were discussions over a potential Anglo-Welsh cup competition which some saw as undermining the Celtic League. Despite Welsh assurances that the proposed Anglo-Welsh tournament would not interfere with their commitments to either the Celtic League in its present format or an expanded 'Rainbow League', the SRU and IRFU cited the fact that the WRU had made arrangements to play games on five weekends without regard to Celtic League fixtures. Welsh sides were expelled from the Celtic League in June 2005. It was proposed that the competition would continue as a Scottish and Irish affair for the 2005/6 season, with the possible addition of 4 Italian sides and the readmittance of Welsh sides for the 2006/7 season. A deal was then reached that allowed for the Celtic League to continue with the Welsh sides readmitted, with some fixtures involving Welsh clubs restructured to accommodate the Anglo-Welsh cup.

Despite these problems, the league enjoyed its most successful season, with the record attendance at a Celtic League match being broken 4 times from 12,436 at the Cardiff Blues Vs. Newport Gwent Dragons match in December to 15,327 for the Cardiff Blues Vs. Leinster match at the Millennium Stadium. The total attendances for the season were up nearly 50,000 at 571,331 compared to 521,449 for the previous season.

The league went down to the last round with Ulster and Leinster both in contention. Following Leinster's victory over Edinburgh and with Ulster losing against the Ospreys, it looked like the cup would go to Dublin but David Humphreys kicked a last minute 40 metre drop goal to clinch the game and the league for Ulster.

2006/07

In May 2006 Magners Irish Cider announced that it would become the title sponsor for the next five seasons, thus the league will now become the Magners Celtic League. There is uncertainty over the name of the league in the Republic of Ireland however where Magners is called Bulmers Irish Cider. One possible outcome will be a situation simular to the Super 14 where a different name is used depending on the home country.

Statistics

Celtic League
Season	Teams	Winners	Runners-Up
2001/02	15	Leinster	Munster
2002/03	16	Munster	Neath
2003/04	12	Scarlets	Ulster
2004/05	11	Ospreys	Munster
2005/06	11	Ulster	Leinster
Celtic Cup
Season	Teams	Winners	Runners-Up
2003/04	12	Ulster	Edinburgh
2004/05	8	Munster	Scarlets

Most points scored by a player in 1 season: 276 (Felipe Contepomi,Leinster, 2005-2006)
Most tries scored by a player in 1 season: 12 (Jamie Robinson,Cardiff Blues,2003-2004 & Kevin Morgan,Newport Gwent Dragons,2004-2005)
Highest Attendance at Celtic League match: 15,327 (Cardiff Blues Vs. Leinster, 14th May 2006)

Other nations

Talks have been held intermittently with both Italy and South Africa about the possible expansion of the Celtic League. A Rainbow Cup involving South African and Italian teams was announced in 2005, but following changes in the membership of the South African Rugby Union the idea was abandoned without a ball kicked.

In the medium term, it is expected that the competition will continue to consist of the three Celtic unions.

External links

Inter-Celtic organisations | Rugby union competitions

Celtic League (rugby)

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