2010–11 Celtic League

2010–11 Celtic League
Connacht vs. Munster, 27 December 2010
Countries	Ireland Italy Scotland Wales
Date	3 September 2010 – 28 May 2011
Champions	Munster (3rd title)
Runners-up	Leinster
Matches played	135
Attendance	1,019,634 (average 7,553 per match)
Tries scored	489 (average 3.6 per match)
Top point scorer	Dan Biggar (Ospreys) (248 points)[1]
Top try scorer	Tim Visser (Edinburgh) (14 tries)[2]
Official website
www.rabodirectpro12.com

The 2010–11 Magners League was the tenth Celtic League season and the fifth with Magners as title sponsor. The regular season began on 3 September 2010 and finished on the weekend of 6–8 May 2011. During these stages, each team played every other team both home and away and were awarded points according to the standard bonus point system. This was the second season to follow the play-off structure to determine the Magners League champion, with the top four teams qualifying for the semi-finals. The winner of each semi final advanced to the Grand Final, which took place 28 May and was hosted by the team that finished highest in the table following the regular season.^[3][4] The title was won by Munster who defeated Leinster by 19–9 at Thomond Park.^[5][6]

This was the final season of the Celtic League sponsored by Magners.^[7] The following season would see RaboDirect, the Irish subsidiary of Dutch financial company Rabobank, take over the sponsorship. At the same time, the league rebranded itself as Pro12.

The twelve teams competing were the four Irish provinces, Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster; two Scottish regions, Edinburgh Rugby and Glasgow Warriors; four Welsh regions, Cardiff Blues, Newport Gwent Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets; and two new Italian entries Aironi and Benetton Treviso

In May 2010, the Ospreys were fined £100,000 and docked 4 points from the 2010–11 season following their postponement of the away fixture at Ulster in the 2009–10 season.^[8] However, in September 2010, following an appeal by the Ospreys, the four point deduction for the 2010–11 season was overturned, although the £100,000 fine was upheld. Instead, the four point deduction was suspended for two years.^[9]

A new broadcast deal saw games broadcast live on terrestrial television channels in Scotland and Ireland in addition to the established terrestrial coverage in Wales. The deal will be in place until the 2013–14 season.^[10]

Connacht Leinster Munster Ulster Edinburgh Glasgow Warriors Blues Dragons Ospreys Scarlets Location of 2010–11 Celtic League teams in Great Britain and Ireland.	Benetton Aironi Location of 2010–11 Celtic League teams in Italy
Winners; 2nd–4th place; Other teams.

Team	Coach	Captain	Stadium	Capacity
Aironi	Franco Bernini	Quintin Geldenhuys	Stadio Luigi Zaffanella	5,000
Benetton Treviso	Franco Smith	Antonio Pavanello	Stadio Comunale di Monigo	6,700
Cardiff Blues	Dai Young	Paul Tito	Cardiff City Stadium	26,828
Connacht	Eric Elwood	John Muldoon	Galway Sportsgrounds	7,000
Edinburgh	Rob Moffat	Roddy Grant	Murrayfield Stadium	67,144[a]
Glasgow Warriors	Sean Lineen	Alastair Kellock	Firhill Stadium	10,887
Leinster	Josef Schmidt	Leo Cullen	RDS Arena Aviva Stadium	18,500 51,700
Munster	Tony McGahan	Paul O'Connell	Thomond Park Musgrave Park	26,500 8,300
Newport Gwent Dragons	Paul Turner	Tom Willis	Rodney Parade	11,676
Ospreys	Scott Johnson	Alun Wyn Jones	Liberty Stadium	20,532
Scarlets	Nigel Davies	Matthew Rees	Parc y Scarlets	14,870
Ulster	Brian McLaughlin	Rory Best	Ravenhill	12,300

	Team	Pld	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD	TF	TA	Try bonus	Losing bonus	Pts
1	Munster	22	19	0	3	496	327	+169	44	22	5	2	83
2	Leinster	22	15	1	6	495	336	+159	50	25	5	3	70
3	Ulster	22	15	1	6	480	418	+62	44	35	3	2	67
4	Ospreys	22	12	1	9	553	418	+135	56	29	6	7	63
5	Scarlets	22	12	1	9	503	453	+50	49	43	5	7	62
6	Cardiff Blues	22	13	1	8	479	392	+87	37	33	3	3	60
7	Newport Gwent Dragons	22	10	1	11	444	462	−18	47	49	3	4	49
8	Edinburgh	22	9	0	13	421	460	−39	39	44	2	5	43
9	Connacht	22	7	1	14	394	459	−65	32	44	3	6	39
10	Benetton Treviso	22	9	0	13	374	502	−128	29	58	0	2	38
11	Glasgow Warriors	22	6	1	15	401	543	−142	33	48	1	6	33
12	Aironi	22	1	0	21	247	517	−270	21	52	0	8	12
Under the standard bonus point system, points are awarded as follows: 4 points for a win 2 points for a draw 1 bonus point for scoring 4 tries (or more) (Try bonus) 1 bonus point for losing by 7 points (or fewer) (Losing bonus)
Green background (rows 1 to 4) are play-off places. Correct as of 7 May 2011. Source: RaboDirect PRO12 Archived 2014-01-17 at the Wayback Machine

All times are local.^[11]

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Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under IRB eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international caps. Players may hold one or more non-IRB nationalities.

Coverage moved back to free to air television. Ulster's matches were televised only in Northern Ireland on BBC Two Northern Ireland apart from their away matches in Aironi, Cardiff Blues, Ospreys and Newport Gwent Dragons. They also televised the Round 10 match between Scarlets vs Leinster as a replacement for the scheduled Ulster vs Newport Gwent Dragons match which was postponed.