Glasgow win maintains hopes of a play-off place

SCOTLAND'S bid to shrug off their lack of funding and be part of the first Magners League play-offs remains on track after a rollercoaster weekend for Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Edinburgh tripped up by losing away to bottom club Connacht on Friday night, however, Glasgow battled to a 27-19 victory over the Newport Gwent Dragons at Firhill yesterday, their first over the Dragons in six meetings at home, to leave Edinburgh in third place with 38 points and Glasgow fourth on 37 with three games remaining.

The Dragons are now five points off the pace and their match at home to Edinburgh on Sunday, 18 April – the league has a break next weekend for the Heineken Cup quarter-finals – has the potential to decide who reaches the top four play-offs.

Leinster defeated Munster on Friday night in front of a 26,000 crowd to open up a seven-point gap over their Irish rivals at the top of the table. Both sides enjoy a budget of nearly three times that of the Scottish clubs, but Edinburgh and Glasgow are hanging in there and both face Brian O'Driscoll's Leinster in the coming weeks.

The Ospreys are leading the Welsh charge, after a fortunate win over the Scarlets on Friday night. They hover in fifth, a point behind Glasgow with a game in hand, but that is away to Ulster on Tuesday week, just three days after they play Biarritz in Spain in the Heineken Cup last eight.

Meanwhile, the next generation of Scottish talent added to the positive vibes with Scotland Under-19s defeating their Italian counterparts 32-3 on Saturday in Parabiago and the Under-17s kicking off the defence of their Wellington international tournament title with a 7-5 victory over an England development side yesterday in Berkshire.