Ulster appear to have won their battle to stage next month's European Cup semi-final against Stade Francais at Ravenhill. European Rugby Cup Ltd will later today announce the outcome of extensive negotiations involving the tournament's governing body and Michael Reid, chief executive of the Ulster Branch of the IRFU.

ERC appears ready to acquiesce provided that the Ulster Branch is able to fulfil several criteria, the most important of which and fundamental to the outcome was whether Ravenhill can be improved sufficiently to provide for a crowd of 20,000. It is believed that the tournament organisers were not prepared to budge on that figure.

The present capacity is 13,500 and Reid conceded that "we could quite easily increase that capacity to 17,500 without any problems. But pushing it to 20,000 does create significant difficulties. I am not saying that we couldn't manage, it is far from a straightforward matter."

Arena, the stand erection specialists, spent yesterday at Ravenhill as did the Health and Safety Officer to determine whether the ERC capacity benchmark could be met. Minor cosmetic changes have already been called for which require the removal of some turnstiles amongst other things, a project which will cost a meagre £1,000.

The reason behind ERC's desire that there is a minimum capacity threshold follows last season's semi-final between Bath and Pau.

The match took place at the Recreation Ground before a capacity crowd of 8,000. More than 6,000 ticket requests were turned down, thus depriving the organisers of in excess of £75,000 in gate receipts.

ERC is determined that the situation will not arise again, a fact endorsed by its insistence that the other semi-final between Colomiers and Perpignan takes place, not in the Stade Selery, but the soccer ground in Toulouse which will be able to cater for the expected crowd of in excess of 30,000.

Ticket prices for that match will go on sale for between £15 and £30, figures that will not be too far removed from the cost of those looking to watch Ulster take on Stade Francais. Reid said that quarterfinal admission prices for the Toulouse match ranged between £6 and £10 and admitted that there would have to be an increase.

Essentially the additional costs of staging the match, temporary stands etc, and pressure from the organisers to maximise gate receipts could see a rise of 100 per cent in ticket prices if the match stays in Ravenhill.

Two other venues were discussed, Windsor Park and Lansdowne Road. The home of Linfield soccer club is basically unsuitable despite a capacity of 25,000. The pitch is too small, although the laying of additional sods was an option, providing for, as Reid admitted, "the smallest dead ball area in rugby".

Lansdowne Road was a third consideration but that too would harbour problems. There is simply no way that the same number who would attend Ravenhill would make the journey from Belfast to Dublin, thereby greatly reducing any attendance.

Furthermore there is a full programme of AIL fixtures for January 9th, the prospective date for the game and therefore the organisers would be fortunate to attract more than a couple of thousand from the Republic of Ireland.

That the game seems destined to go ahead on the Saturday may be attributed to French television, heavyweight financial backers of the European Cup, who are believed to be anxious that the game goes ahead on the Saturday.

A working party set up to investigate the possibility of a British and Irish League has scheduled another meeting before Christmas to continue talks.

Yesterday's meeting at Heathrow Airport saw representatives from all four home nations make "constructive progress towards sensible and agreed criteria".

A statement from the party claimed the next meeting will see the representatives "continue their work to find the right way forward for a possible competition next season".

Working party chairman Glanmor Griffiths said: "It was agreed that the working party members should make a swift report back to their respective countries and that more discussion should take place at local level prior to the next British and Irish League working party meeting on December 23rd."

Galwegians: H O'Toole; A Reddan, P Duignan, M Murphy, N Carolan; E Elwood, D Reddan; P Kay, K Tierney, M Finlay; G Heaslip, J Duffy; J Casserley, B Gavin, G Dinneen.

Skerries: P Beggs; C Lawless, M Petera, G Duff, E Caraher; J Dempsey, C Keane; J Horan, B Mulcahy, J O'Reilly; T Giles, K Dowling; C Gallagher, B Higgins, P Butler.

Old Crescent: B Begley; S Madigan, B O'Neill, L Doyle, F Walsh; S Tuohy/J Nihill, C Forde; I Stewart, V Peros/M O'Meara, P McLoughlin; (back five from): B Toland, D O'Halloran, L Dinneen, T O'Malley, P Neville, D Bowles.

Monkstown: S Newton; B Conway, R McInerney, G McWilliams, A N Other; J Gibson, C Heaney; B Markey, D Dent, M Smith; C Lupton, K Rigney; H Maguire, D Watts, D O'Brien.