Lyn Jones’s men had powered their way to the silverware with the Cardiff Blues hot on their heels: Dai Young’s men finishing just a single point behind the Ospreys in the final standings. The reigning champions would seek to reclaim the title for the second successive year, and gain an unprecedented third title, whilst Young’s side (runners-up for the previous two years’ running) desperately sought the trophy that was proving so elusive. Paul Turner’s Dragons, who finished in lowly ninth place in last season’s standings, were the other region never to have won the title whilst the Scarlets, triumphant in the first season after the inception of regionalism, would seek greater heights than the fourth place acquired at the close of the former campaign.

It was up to the four Welsh sides to provide the fireworks at the opening of the season as the initial two weekends of the 2007-2008 Magners League tournament were Welsh derbies, with the Blues hosting champions Ospreys on the opening night and the Dragons travelling to Stradey Park the day after. The competition employed the same structure, teams and point-awarding system as the previous season, the tournament once again under the sponsorship of Irish Cider brand Magners.

In a thrilling start to the championship the home side triumphed, putting down a marker for the Magners League crown with an impressive 17-15 victory over the Ospreys. A last minute penalty miss by Shaun Connor denied the champions an initial win of the season as a Rhys Williams try and four penalties from the boot of Nicky Robinson proved too much for Ryan Jones’s men in this intense display. The exciting start to the season continued in West Wales as the Dragons secured a win for the first time at Stradey Park as a region since the inauguration of the Celtic League competition in 2003. After drawing out a 23-3 half time lead the Dragons survived a half time fightback from the Scarlets and held on to secure their deserved victory.

Cardiff Blues extended their winning run on the second weekend of Welsh derbies as they thumped the Dragons by 40-13 at Rodney Parade. The visitors were largely untroubled by their Welsh hosts as they cruised to a comfortable five tries to one win, Wales Sevens star Tal Selley notching a brace for the Blues and fly half Robinson kicking fifteen points. Whilst the Blues made it two wins from two, the Ospreys gained two losses from two matches played as the Scarlets ground out a narrow victory at the Liberty Stadium, costing them their 15 month, 18 match unbeaten record at home.

Less than two weeks later the Scottish and Irish teams entered the fray, with a successful round of matches for all of the latter’s representatives. The Dragons suffered two losses on the bounce as Connacht eased their way to victory at the Sportsground; Ulster gained a narrow 17-16 victory over the still-winless Ospreys at Ravenhill, Munster triumphed over Phil Davies’s Scarlets at Musgrave Park and Leinster secured four wins out of four for the Irish provinces with victory at Murrayfield. The Blues were the only Welsh region to prosper on this first full round of games, ad extended their position at the top of the Magners League with a five-try victory over Glasgow Warriors – their 17th successive home win.

However, the end of September saw this unbeaten home run ended as Leinster rubbed the shine off the Blues’ impressive start of the season with a 30-19 victory at the Arms Park. At 18-14 down in the second half the Blues had a sniff of victory when Irish centre Fergus McFadden was sent to the sin-bin but the Welsh region snuffed out any chance of success by conceding two tries in the space of three minutes despite their man advantage. The Dragons faired little better as Munster dominated proceedings at Rodney Parade in a 26-16 win, the same points victory that the Irish giants had secured over the Scarlets the week before.

However, there was some Welsh success at the end of the first month of the new championship. The Scarlets gained a comfortable win over Connacht in front of their home faithful, a four try showing gaining them a useful bonus point, and the reigning champions regained their form to chalk up a 37-23 victory over Glasgow on home soil. Led out by hooker Barry Williams, making his 100th appearance for the region, the Ospreys carved the Scottish defence wide open with fullback Lee Byrne gaining a try double. Despite the Warriors battling back to just two points behind at 23-21, three penalties from Connor’s boot and a late try by replacement Ben Lewis secured the initial Ospreys win of the season.

The start of October brought more success for the regions, though the Ospreys faltered once more in only being able to notch a draw at Murrayfield against Edinburgh. The Blues inflicted Munster’s initial defeat of the season as they edged out a 19-17 result at Ravenhill to stay at the top of the Magners table, a brace from young winger Tom James of note in the clash. The Dragons moved off the foot of the table and condemned Ulster to the basement spot in the clash in Newport, whilst the Scarlets provided one of the biggest shocks of the season by thrashing Irish giants Leinster 52-23 in their own back yard. The bonus point win, secured through a Johnathan Edwards brace and other efforts from Morgan Stoddart, Regan King, Matthew Watkins and James Bater, moved the West Wales region to within three points of early pace-setters Cardiff Blues at the top of the Magners League table.

Another successful round of Welsh wins followed in October with the Scarlets thrashing Ulster, Blues defeating Connacht, Dragons triumphing at Murrayfield and the Ospreys securing a superb 16-3 win over Munster, before the Welsh regions took a break from Magners League action to do battle with English opposition in the first round of the EDF Energy Cup. With Heineken Cup fixtures also to be played the Magners League resumed in late November, with all four regions tasting defeat on the return to action. The Blues missed the chance to extend their lead at the top of the league after they slumped to a 17-5 defeat to Glasgow Warriors with the Ospreys losing further ground in the competition standings as they crashed to a 19-26 defeat to Leinster at the Liberty Stadium; a try from Wales U20 star Gareth Owen and 14 points from Connor’s boot not enough on the night. The Dragons encountered a heavy loss at Musgrave Park as they went down 45-19 to Irish giants Munster, and the Scarlets rounded off a dismal weekend with defeat against Edinburgh.

A break in fixtures for additional competitions took the Welsh regions into another bout of derbies as the campaign regained momentum at the close of the year. Boxing Day threw up a tight Welsh affair at the Arms Park with the home side only narrowly defeating the visiting Dragons; Ceri Sweeney’s late penalty clinched a valuable bonus point for the Dragons in the 11-6 result. The Scarlets did the double over the Ospreys as they triumphed at Stradey Park a day later, and in doing so in the 17-12 victory kept their Magners League title hopes alive before the dawn of the new year.

The Ospreys enacted revenge on the Blues for their opening clash defeat by securing a victory on home soil on New Year’s Eve; Jones’s men limited their visitors to just a single penalty as 17 points from James Hook and a Huw Bennett try put the reigning champions back on track. The Dragons made it two victories over the Scarlets in one season, to the delight of the New Year’s Day Rodney Parade Crowd, as Richard Mustoe's last-minute try handed the Newport Gwent Dragons a perfect start to 2008. This vein of form continued a week later as Paul Turner’s men triumphed 18-16 at the Firhill Arena over Glasgow, the Ospreys fairing less well with their second defeat to Leinster in three months.

The Magners League picked up momentum in mid February with successes for the Scarlets and Ospreys, with wins over Glasgow and Connacht respectively, but the Irish opposition proved too much for the other Welsh regions as the Blues went down to the ever-impressive Leinster and the Dragons suffered a heavy 38-13 loss to Ulster at Ravenhill. The close of February saw the Ospreys’ miserable away form continue as they slugged it out against Glasgow on Scottish soil in an eventual 9-6 defeat; Dan Parks gaining three points more than Ospreys fly half Connor. The Dragons also failed to gain a win over their Scottish counterparts, only mustering a 10-point draw against Edinburgh at Murrayfield. The Llanelli Scarlets were defeated by their Irish hosts as Ulster ran out 20-8 winners but the weekend saw one Welsh victor, as the Blues triumphed on St David’s Day with a monumental 25-22 last-gasp victory over Munster with Tal Selley storming over the whitewash six minutes into injury time for the superb result.

The end of tail-end of March brought an Ospreys’ success over Ulster, who had narrowly beaten them at the start of the season, and also saw the Blues comfortably secure an away win at Murrayfield – preventing their Scottish hosts from scoring even a single point. Both the Dragons and Scarlets were on the disappointing end of results though as Magners League leaders Leinster produced a masterclass on West Wales soil, killing off the Scarlets’ slim Magners title hopes with ruthless efficiency. Meanwhile, the Dragons fell further behind the Ospreys in the race for automatic Heineken Cup qualification with a home defeat to Glasgow, a brace from Thom Evans edging the Warriors to the win.

The penultimate Magners month of April staged a thrilling Welsh derby with the Blues entertaining the Scarlets at the Arms Park. On the back of Heineken Cup heartbreak the Blues powered to a 35-26 win after the visitors had notched up an early lead through Dwayne Peel and Wales U20 star Jonathan Davies. Second half Blues tries from Marc Stcherbina and Ben Blair, who racked up 17 points in total in the clash, powered the hosts to the win and struck a major blow in the battle to be the top Welsh region.

The month saw two losses for the Dragons, a disappointing defeat to Connacht on home soil and a 16-3 defeat to the Ospreys at the Liberty Stadium. Llanelli Scarlets also had an unsuccessful mon th, following up the defeat to the Blues with one to Glasgow on Scottish turf. Cardiff Blues gained two wins out of two in April, having been victorious over Phil Davies’s men they followed up with an impressive 30-17 win at the Arms Park (their last home game of the season) to tighten their grip on the second place position in the table. The Ospreys meanwhile continued their bleak away form with a closely contested match at Musgrave Park; though a late try from Sonny Parker boosted Welsh hopes three penalties from Paul Warwick were enough to secure the Irish win.

The penultimate weekend of action saw the Cardiff Blues enact a heavy bonus-point defeat over Connacht at the Sportsground to cement their second place in the Magners League table. The Ospreys’ season stuttered to an unimpressive halt as they incurred the first what would be three defeats in May, the first to gain the former champions’ scalp being Scottish visitors Edinburgh. Munster did the double over the Scarlets the following day in a tightly contested clash that saw the luck of the Irish win out: Paul Warwick clinched the victory ten minutes into injury time with a penalty kick to edge the final score to 24-23.

Leinster carried off the Magners League trophy in style as they condemned the Dragons to their largest Magners League defeat of the 2007–2008 season with a 41-8 score line at the RDS. A brace from Ollie le Roux and four other tries from Shane Horgan, Shane Jennings, Chris Whitaker and replacement Cameron Jowitt rounded off a comprehensive display by the triumphant Irishmen.

Two defeats in the space of three days signalled a disappointing season end for the Ospreys, going down first to fellow Welsh region the Dragons and finishing the 2007–2008 campaign with a narrow loss to Connacht away from home; this final result ensured that the region had failed to win a single game away from the Liberty Stadium throughout the Magners season. Three days after the victory over the Ospreys the Dragons finished their season by taking the shine off Leinster’s title winning season by securing a scintillating 31-26 victory over the newly crowned Magners champs at Rodney Parade. An explosive opening period saw the Dragons fire into a stunning 24-3 lead at Rodney Parade. Tries from Steve Jones, Wayne Evans, Hugh Gustafson and Phil Dollman secured a bonus-point within 20 minutes to set up a second successive home win in four days.

The Blues also finished on a high with a notable victory over Ulster in their own back yard to confirm the runners-up spot in the 2007–2008 Magners League. A brace from Maama Molitika and two other efforts from Roger Davies and James Down secured the bonus point on the penultimate day of the campaign. The last fixture of the season saw the Llanelli Scarlets encounter a 12-29 defeat to Edinburgh, their second of the season, to finish sixth in the Magners League table; the second highest placed Welsh region.

The Irish powerhouses of Leinster and Munster sandwiched the Blues in the top three of the final standings, with Young’s men again unable to better their accustomed position of runners-up. Edinburgh, under former England Head Coach Andy Robinson, finished the season in an impressive fourth place and were followed in quick succession by fellow Scottish counterparts Glasgow Warriors in fifth. Ultimately the Welsh regions of Scarlets, Ospreys and Dragons made up the lower half of the table; positions 6, 7 and 8 were separated by just five points at the close of the season.

Irish provinces Ulster and Connacht propped up the base of the table in ninth and tenth positions in a Magners season that, from a Welsh perspective, failed to live up to its predecessor. This having been said, both Ospreys and Blues had progressed to the quarter-final stages of the Heineken Cup for the first time in history, though defeats were incurred to Saracens and Toulouse respectively. Magners League fans can look forward to an exciting 2008–2009 season in which the Welsh regions, some under new leadership, will seek to better their performances and final standings and raise the level of regional Welsh rugby another notch higher.