Only nine points separate the Scarlets at the top from the Warriors in eighth place and the gap would have been narrower still had the defending champions beaten Leinster at Scotstoun early last month instead of being washed out.
The concertina effect began at the start of the festive season on St Stephen's Day/Boxing Day with the last round of fixtures of the old year and gathered momentum with the first round of 2016. Its effect over the space of eight days has been to compress the top eight as never before.
All but six - Leinster, Munster, Ulster, Ospreys, Scarlets and Warriors - have won the title at least once. The two exceptions, Connacht and Edinburgh, will make the play-offs for the first time if they finish where they are now, in third and fourth place respectively.
The glorious unpredictability meant that everything changed, except for the Scarlets' position at the top. They are still out in front in a way not even the most faithful of their followers could have imagined, that their team would lose both their matches and somehow avoid being knocked off their perch as a consequence.
For sheer gut-wrenching drama, their full-house derbies, at home to the Ospreys and then against the Blues at BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park, took some beating. The Scarlets lost the first by one point, the second by two.
As if missing a last-kick penalty to have beaten the Ospreys wasn't bad enough, they then succumbed to a late Blues rally during a period when their resources were stretched to the limit by two second-half yellow cards.
Instead of pulling clear, the Scarlets headed home from the capital burdened by an overpowering sense of recent history repeating itself. They had lost two on the bounce for the first time since falling to the same opponents in successive weeks twelve months earlier.
Should they fail to go the distance and make the semi-finals in May, the leaders will look back at the damage caused by their miserly Christmas. There are times, though, when even aspiring champions have to be truly thankful for small mercies.
The Scarlets' two losing bonus points were twice as many as Connacht managed from successive defeats over the same period. Ironically, the two western teams of Wales and Ireland meet in Llanelli on Sunday, their confrontation made all the more significant by recent defeats.
Connacht cannot contemplate losing four in a row since their magnificent win over Munster in Limerick at the end of November but that will be the grim reality unless John Muldoon's men stop the rot which began with their last Welsh visit, a 20-16 loss to the Blues a month ago.
As the top two faltered, Leinster and Edinburgh made the biggest gains. Leo Cullen's squad, all the better for Sean O'Brien's return from injury, responded to their Champions' Cup elimination with a thumping win over Munster at Thomond Park followed by a more modest one over Connacht at the RDS Arena.
A sixth straight win hoisted Leinster into second place, with that game in hand against the Warriors rearranged for Friday March 18, the night before the final round of the Six Nations. Another wash-out at Scotstoun last weekend explained how the defending champions came to lose to Edinburgh at BT Murrayfield for the second time in the space of six days.
The double pushed Edinburgh into the play-off zone, dizzy heights for Scotland's capital city considering that they last finished in the top half of the PRO12 six seasons back. Their outstanding ability to defend what they hold suggests they may take some shifting.
When the chips were down towards the end last Saturday, Mike Coman supervised arguably the longest rearguard action of the campaign. The Warriors, spurning a shot at goal for the draw in frenzied search for the winning try, subjected Edinburgh to a 29-phase pounding.
They survived in the end by conceding a penalty which meant they had to survive another 13 phases from the Warriors before the holders finally ran aground on the Edinburgh rocks. As Coman pointed out before collecting the valuable Guinness PRO12 points and the 1872 trophy, his team had been 'the little brother' for too long.
Edinburgh are back at BT Murrayfield on Friday, determined to consolidate their top-four status at the expense of Benetton Treviso. Zebre's double over their compatriots makes them strong favourites to carry the Italian flag into next season's Champions' Cup.
Leinster will go top, if only temporarily, provided they win the outstanding match of the round, against the Ospreys in Swansea, also on Friday. Last season's fixture, in the midst of the RBS 6 Nations, ended in a try-less draw, Jimmy Gopperth kicking three goals for the Irish province, Sam Davies replying with three of his own with Dan Biggar otherwise engaged on national duty.
The rearrangement of Champions' Cup matches called off from the opening round the day after the Paris massacres in November mean three matches have been postponed - Blues against Munster, Ulster versus the Dragons and Zebre against Warriors.
The three Guinness PRO12 teams otherwise engaged this weekend are all in France, starting with the Warriors in Paris against Racing at lunchtime on Saturday.
When head coach Gregor Townsend spoke of 'mountains to climb' in the immediate aftermath after coming up short against Edinburgh for the second time, nobody could accuse him of exaggeration. Racing 92 - with one defeat in eleven matches - head the Top 14 for the first time this season.
Munster are also in Paris on Saturday for a make-or-break tie against Stade Francais. Ulster, back on track for the quarter-finals after their famous double over Toulouse, will settle for nothing less than another win in France, this time at struggling Oyonnax.
Guinness PRO12 Points over the two-match festive period, from a maxium of ten:
Blues 9
Edinburgh 8
Leinster 8
Ospreys 8
Zebre 8
Ulster 5
Munster 4
Scarlets 2
Dragons 2
Connacht 1
Warriors 1
Treviso 1
Winning runs (Guinness PRO12 matches only):
Leinster 6,
Ospreys 5,
Blues 3,
Edinburgh 2,
Zebre 2.
Losing (Guinness PRO 12 matches only):
Benetton Treviso 18,
Connacht 3,
Dragons 2,
Scarlets 2,
Warriors 2.
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