It has been an enthralling Vodacom United Rugby Championship season, and this weekend’s final round will start with even 10th placed Connacht still having a slight mathematical chance of making the play-offs and still being in the running for silverware.
Yet it is how the teams finish at the top and who plays who in the first game of the Finals Series that should grab as much focus in this last round as the quest by Edinburgh, Benetton, Emirates Lions and Connacht to get into the playoff qualification bracket.
Throw in the fact that last week’s win by the Hollywoodbets Sharks in the EPCR Challenge Cup final has now made it imperative to finish no lower than seventh to be assured of Investec Champions Cup qualification, and a whole extra layer of intrigue is added.Locally, the best chance of a South African team doing what the Stormers did in the inaugural season by winning the trophy is for the Vodacom Bulls to go top, which would mean they play all their playoff games at Fortress Loftus.
For that to happen the Bulls, currently second, need to beat the Sharks, in Durban and then bank on Ulster continuing the form they showed with their recent home win over Leinster by doing it away against the reigning URC champions, Munster.When it comes to Connacht’s ever so slight glimmer of hope, they will need to pick up a full house of five log points on Friday night - the problem being that they are away at the RDS Arena to Leinster.
If they do hit that target though, they will be seventh on the log going into Saturday’s play. They will then face an anxious wait hoping that the Emirates Lions get nothing out of their early afternoon game against the Stormers in Cape Town and that the loser of the Benetton/Edinburgh game that kicks off 15 minutes later also fails to pick up a log point.With a two point lead at the top, a win over Ulster will guarantee them pole position.
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