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The Celtic League is an annual Rugby Union competition involving regional sides from Ireland , Scotland and Wales , seen by many as the third major league in Europe , after the English Guinness Premiership and the French TOP 14 . The Celtic League season 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 has been 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 will now be played until April and then the Celtic Cup competition will be 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 now at least partly embedded, the signs are looking optimistic so far that the Celtic League will be a competition that can continue on 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. STATISTICS Most points scored by a player in 1 season: 273 ( Neil Jenkins , Celtic Warriors ) 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: 15,128 ( Ospreys Vs. Scarlets , 18th April 2006) NOTE The name "Celtic League" is not entirely accurate as the competition contains no teams from Brittany , Cornwall or the Isle Of Man , the other three Celtic Nations . SEE ALSO
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