Scots named in Magners elite XV

SCOTLAND'S improved showing in the Magners League this season has been reflected with four players chosen in the competition's Dream Team.

The XV, selected by 16 rugby journalists from Scotland, Ireland and Wales, features Glasgow fly-half Dan Parks and Edinburgh wing Tim Visser in the back division, while Glasgow skipper Al Kellock beats off top international competition at lock and his openside flanker John Barclay similarly wins a competitive battle for the No7 jersey in a back row that includes former All Black Jerry Collins and Jamie Heaslip, Leinster's British and Irish Lion.

Recently crowned Irish and Welsh Player of the Year Tommy Bowe polled the most votes, 12 on the wing and one at centre, Parks and Barclay earned the nod from 11 of the 16 judges and Edinburgh's young flyer Visser, who celebrates his 23rd birthday tomorrow, received eight votes in both wing positions.

Leinster and the Ospreys, who contest the first Magners League Grand Final in Dublin tomorrow, have seven players named between them.

Meanwhile, despite a long season that has seen him feature in 18 of the 19 Magners League fixtures to date, Collins isn't looking at putting his feet up on the beach just yet.

Despite the immense physical effort he has put in, the Ospreys back rower insists he is as fired up and ready to go in Dublin at the weekend as he has been at any time this year, saying that all that hard work has been about setting up the clash at the RDS.

"All the minutes I've played, all the hard work and effort, you trade them all in for this last 80 minutes" he said. "It's a good place to be at the end of a long season. There's a chance to make a little bit of history for the Ospreys."