Rugby's Celtic League Trivia Quiz

Answer: Italy

As can be seen from its name, the Celtic League was initially contested by sides from the three Celtic nations: Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Upon the introduction of two Italian teams, Aironi and Benetton Treviso, the Celtic League became a somewhat inappropriate name for the competition.

The name lingered on but the competition was already far better known as the Magners League by the time of Italian involvement.

Answer: France

In comparison to the very new Celtic League, France's Top 14 had already celebrated its 100th anniversary. The Top 14, instituted in 1892, was one of the oldest competitions in the world predating the modern Summer Olympic Games by four years and the Winter Olympic Games by 32 years.

Answer: Leinster

After getting off to a magnificent start, Leinster struggled to replicate their achievement in later years. The provincial team would have to wait another six seasons before lifting the trophy for a second time, coming second to neighbouring Ulster between the two victories.

Answer: Fly Half

Dan Parks, although born in Australia, represented Scotland in international Test matches and the Glasgow Warriors for many years. Parks mainly played in the fly half position, the player who receives the pass from the scrum half at breakdowns, rucks and mauls.

The fly half position is one of the most pressurised in rugby union, with the player having to make many of the key decisions during a match. Such decisions involve choosing whether to run with ball in hand, to pass to players down the line or to kick the ball to gain territory. With precision kicks being required in open play, the fly half usually has the best kicking skills of all the players on the team and will thus have the responsibility of kicking penalties and conversions.

Answer: Magners League

The Magners name became so strongly associated with the competition that the official name, the Celtic League, fell almost entirely out of use. When the Magners Irish Cider company's sponsorship of the league came to an end, the elegant green, black and yellow marketing colour scheme fell out of use. It was replaced by the blue, white and orange of RaboDirect, an Irish bank.

Answer: No

No team managed to achieve this double though two Irish provincial teams came close. The 2003-04 and 2004-05 Celtic Cup competitions were won by Ulster and Munster respectively but both these teams finished in second place in the league in their respective years.

Whilst the Celtic Cup was being dominated by Irish teams in the period 2003-2005, the Celtic League was won by the Scarlets and the Ospreys from Wales. The Celtic Cup competition did not continue beyond those two seasons.

Answer: Edinburgh

Edinburgh became the first Scottish side to finish the season in either of the top two positions on the Celtic League table. They were beaten to the 2008-09 title by Munster, the Irish team who had previously won the competition in 2002-03.

Answer: Swansea City

The Ospreys were one of the four Welsh regions that regularly took part in the Celtic League, the other three being the Scarlets, the Dragons and the Blues. The Ospreys represented Neath, Swansea, Bridgend and the surrounding areas of central south Wales. They shared the Liberty Stadium with Swansea City, a professional football team that became the first Welsh side ever to compete in the Premier League.

In addition to the aforementioned Welsh regional teams, another Welsh team took part in the 2003-04 season and that was the ill-fated Celtic Warriors (they lasted one season and folded). Their home gorund was taken over by the newly formed rugby league club, Celtic Crusaders (formed in 2005).

Answer: Referee

The role of the referee is vital but the nature of the job makes it impossible to please everybody and extremely likely to please nobody. Referees are in a special group of people that include tax inspectors, traffic wardens and politicians - they are the group that people love to hate. Nigel Owens, Alain Rolland and George Clancy were amongst the best referees to regularly officiate a Celtic League match. All three had experience at international level with Alain Rolland taking charge of the final of the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France.

Answer: RaboDirect Pro12

The Celtic League, after being known as the Magners League for five years, became the RaboDirect Pro12 for the 2011-12 season. Whilst the latter name is not as catchy as the former, the name change brought the competition in line with other rugby union tournaments such as France's Top 14 and the Southern Hemisphere's Super XV.