The dramatic events on the final day of the Magners League season thoroughly vindicated the decision to introduce play-off semi-finals.
Before this season, the league winners were decided in the traditional, inarguable but ultimately uninspiring way: top team takes the title.
However, the decision to introduce play-offs along the lines of those which have long since maintained the vitality of the Guinness Premiership and Super 14 in the southern hemisphere has borne fruit in brilliant style.
After 17 game-weeks, six of the ten teams still had loads to play for, whether it was a place in the top four or, for the sides already guaranteed of that, including Leinster, a home semi-final next weekend.
Going into the final afternoon of the regular season, three sides – Munster, Cardiff Blues and Edinburgh – could all take the final play-off spot.
On an afternoon of shifting sands, all three had a semi-final place within reach before Munster eventually put it in safekeeping by dint of a bonus point defeat to Cardiff.
Edinburgh, on the back of four tries which saw them open up a 28-20 lead inside the final quarter at the RDS, still had hopes of gatecrashing the play-off party before Leinster’s late rally and Munster’s stoic resistance in south Wales.
Exhilarating conclusion
In other years, Leinster’s stirring late fightback – which included a kick from big lock Nathan Hines which would have brought high praise to a Wilkinson or a Carter – would have been an exhilarating conclusion to the League season in its own right.
This time, it merely whets the appetite for three more big games to come including the biggest of them all, in Irish terms at least: Leinster against Munster at the RDS next Saturday night.
All of which has brought  a remarkable rise in profile for the Magners League. As competitions go, it suffers as a real poor relation. Fixtures take place throughout the Six Nations, when clubs routinely find themselves going to war without generals or ammunition. Against the white heat and blinding light of the Heineken Cup, it’s regularly lukewarm and lacklustre.
However, there’s no denying that the Magners League is in the ascendancy while England’s Premiership is quickly becoming more about hype than substance.
There was no English representation in the last four of the Heineken Cup this season and while it may be overstating things to suggest that the decline in English club rugby is terminal, there’s no denying that the Magners League has a better record in recent seasons.
Of the eight Heineken Cup semi-finalists over the past two years, five were Magners League representatives with two from France and just one from England.
The events of this weekend suggest continued rude health for the Celtic competition, and the rejuvenation of Scottish sis Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors is also a welcome development.
If there is always room for improvement, the Magners League has been moving in the right direction. And with play-offs breathing new life into its format, that only looks set to continue.
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