NEWPORT Gwent Dragons made virtually certain of Heineken Cup rugby next season with their courageous 13-11 Celtic League victory over Ulster at Rodney Parade on Friday night.

The Dragons team were without six members of the Wales squad, who were not released under the terms of the charter the four regions signed with the Welsh Rugby Union.

Hal Luscombe, Kevin Morgan, Ceri Sweeney, Gareth Cooper, Ian Gough and Michael Owen were all unable to play because Wales coach Mike Ruddock wanted them held back in readiness for Saturday's Six Nations Championship clash against France.

Ulster, on the other hand, had their Irish players released, in contrast with the IRFU policy at the start of the season to insist on their leading players undertaking conditioning training.

It meant players of the calibre of David Humphreys, Kevin Maggs and Gary Longwell all appeared against the Dragons, who looked up against it as they trailed 6-0, only to hit back to lead 7-6 at the interval, and trail again 11-9 before Percy Montgomery clinched a fine victory with a 50- yard penalty four minutes from the end.

It puts the Dragons on 40 points as their retain fourth place in the table, 18 behind runaway leaders Neath Swansea Ospreys, but just three points behind Leinster, though on the same number as Llanelli Scarlets with a game in hand over their Welsh rivals.

If it stays that way the Dragons will have a home draw in the straight knock-out Celtic Cup competition to be played in April.

But, more importantly, the Dragons are now 14 points ahead of Cardiff Blues, the fourth- placed Welsh team in the Celtic League who will miss out on the Heineken Cup if they remain there, on the same number of games but with only five matches left to play.

The next one, at home to bottom team Borders a week Friday, ought to be a banker, though the next three away to the Ospreys, home to Munster and away against Edinburgh should be rather more testing.

Nevertheless, the Dragons are as good as in Europe's premier competition next season, which is timely given last week's decision by the board of directors not to retain coach Chris Anderson, and confirmation of financial backer Tony Brown's decision to leave at the end of the season.

"The win will stand us in good stead for Europe next season," said Dragons captain Jason Forster. "The boys deserve a pat on the back after all that's happened, they showed great character.

"The players put their hands up and it was a good effort. We showed spirit and determination and we had that self-belief. We fought hard and defended well and the points we got were invaluable."

Huge tributes were paid to Rod Snow at his testimonial dinner at the Celtic Manor Resort on Saturday night to mark his ten years at Rodney Parade.

Gareth Rees, his former teammate with Canada and Newport, led the tributes, along with Newport chairman David Watkins and guest speaker Max Boyce, while a compilation of Snow's best moments with Newport and the Dragons was shown on video to an audience of more than 500 people.

Snow's parents flew in from Newfoundland especially for the occasion. An auction of rugby memorabilia, including an autographed jersey of the Welsh team which beat England recently, and Percy Montgomery's original boots, raised thousands of pounds.