It’s still all to play for

THE COMPETITION for places in this year’s Heineken Cup quarter-finals has never been keener.

With five rounds and one hundred and twenty pool games played, only one team, Edinburgh, has qualified to advance to the next stage as we enter the final weekend of pool matches. They remain the only unbeaten side in the tournament, and are the first Scottish team ever to qualify.

As an indicator of how tight the competition is, defeat for Edinburgh next week will see them go from first seed to eighth. From an Irish perspective, the progress of both Munster and Leinster is very much in their own hands. Sadly Ulster, for the fourth year in a row, have failed to make the knockout stage.