Newport and Neath will be amongst the favourites in the run-in

The top eight Welsh Premiership teams have been decided ahead of the new-look end-of-season play-offs.

Swansea, Neath, Newport, Llanelli, Pontypridd, Cardiff, Aberavon and Llandovery make the cut.

Swansea currently lead the league, but Neath have two games in hand and are expected to top the table at the end of the regular season.

A complicated series of play-offs will then decide the overall champions and the British & Irish Cup qualifiers.

The first-placed side at the end of the regular season will welcome the team finishing fourth, the second-placed club hosting the third, all four teams gaining entry to the 2010/11 British & Irish Cup.

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The teams finishing fifth-to-eighth will also play off, the two winners from that securing British & Irish Cup places and going on to challenge the losers from the first-to-fourth teams.

The two sides to emerge from that process then advance to face the winners from the first-to-fourth play-offs in the final series of fixtures to determine the overall champion.

At the other end of the table, Ebbw Vale's 22-12 basement battle win over Pontypool kept alive their slim hopes of avoiding the drop.

The Steelmen are now eight points behind Pooler, each side having two games left to play.

"The fight goes on and our boys won't stop until it is over," Ebbw Vale director of rugby Rowland Phillips told the South Wales Argus.

"It's a shame that it has come this late in the season but we are still up for the challenge and we still have hope."

Pontypool host high-flying Newport on Wednesday then travel to Aberavon on Saturday.

Ebbw host Glamorgan Wanderers on Saturday and finish with the visit of Neath on 20 April.

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