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Sunday 8 May 2011

Magners League playoff places finalised

Before tonight's round of games only Munster had secured their place in this years Mangers League semi-finals. They had done so by securing top spot  and a home semi-final in the process. For this reason most of tonight's attention focussed on who would secure the second home semi-final place and the remaining play-off places. On a night when the fourth place position changed often it led to a tense night for the supporters of Leinster, Ulster, Cardiff Blues, Scarlets and the Ospreys.


The first team to ease their supporters nerves were the men of Ulster who secured third place in the league by defeating the Dragons on a scoreline 20-13 at Rodney Parade. Centre Nevin Spence went over for two early tries for Ulster, with Pedrie Wannenburg adding a third before half time. Dragons who have been one of the form teams in the league over the last few month's responded with a try from Tom Riley but Ulster held on for the win.


Leinster for a while tonight were behind Ulster in the table but regained second place with a comfortable bonus point win over Glasgow on a scoreline of 38-3 at the RDS. All four tries came in the second period with Shane Horgan, Gordon D'Arcy, Dominic Ryan and Kevin McLoughlin all getting on the score sheet. They are now in a good position to attempt an historic European and Domestic cup double.
Ospreys secured the final semi-final place by coming from behind against Aironi in Italy. They won on a score of 12-10. All of Ospreys points came from penalties with 3 coming from the boot of Dan Bigger and a late penalty from James Hook gave Ospreys a hard fought win. It had looked for a long time tonight that the Ospreys would lose out on that final spot to either Cardiff or the Scarlets as Aironi almost secured only their second win in the league but Hook's late penaty finalised this years semi-finalists.

Magners League Semi-Final Line-up:
Munster vs Ospreys
Leinster vs Ulster

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