It ought to provide the Ospreys with one of their biggest crowds since the start of their ground-sharing venture with Swansea City Football Club. No matter how large the attendance, a much larger one has already been guaranteed, some five weeks before it takes place.
More than 40,000 tickets have been sold for the double-header at Principality Stadium on April 30 - Judgement Day IV. The joint top of the bill features the Blues against Ospreys and Dragons against Scarlets with every likelihood of the fans raising the roof by pushing last year's attendance (52,762) towards 60,000.
Not for nothing, therefore, does Mark Davies, chief executive of Pro Rugby Wales, describe the six derbies as 'a unique and intense period for professional rugby in Wales.'
The game there has always been big on tribalism, long before the Whites of Swansea and the All Blacks of Neath merged as one and the 'Turks' of Llanelli broadened their horizon far beyond Llanelli.
Ospreys, twice Grand Final champions, may have lost any realistic hope of reaching a third at BT Murrayfield on May 28, successive losses to Connacht in Galway and Leinster in Dublin leaving them a long way adrift.
That said, they will need no more motivation than the sight of the Scarlets making the short journey from Llanelli on the other side of the Loughor, the river that marks the western boundary of Ospreylia, as the locals like to call it. The outcome will decide whether the visitors keep on track for the play-offs.
Having taken up permanent residence in the top four since the opening weekend last September, the Scarlets have made several bold declarations of intent, none bolder than last month's single-point victory over Ulster in Belfast.
What concerns them now is avoiding the danger of being ambushed on Welsh soil, of negotiating their way through familiar territory against dangerous opponents.
Ospreys have already hit them once this season, squeezing home by the narrowest margin before a packed Parc y Scarlets on Boxing Day but only after surviving a penalty miss from the last kick. This one promises to be as significant as when they met at the same venue at roughly the same time of year in 2010, the first season of the play-offs.
The cast featured a multitude of internationals from Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and, of course, Wales. Of the starting teams, only three will reappear, assuming they are all selected.
Two of the three are players who have made cross-border moves and returned, Wales prop Paul James (Ospreys-Bath-Ospreys) and one-Test All Black centre Regan King (Scarlets-Clermont-Scarlets). The only one who has stayed put, Dan Biggar, kicked six goals on a day when an Irish Lion, Tommy Bowe, accounted for both Osprey tries in a home win, 27-19.
So many superstars have given the regions a global dimension within the last 15 years that picking the best XV is fraught with all manner of pitfalls. Trying to ensure that the chosen few are spread as evenly as possible across the four times makes it doubly difficult, an exercise tinged with sorrow over the tragic loss of two All Blacks before they could reach middle-age.
The best all-time GUINNESS PRO12 Welsh Regional team? Here goes:
15 Percy Montgomery (Dragons & South Africa)
14 Tommy Bowe (Ospreys & Ireland)
13 Casey Laulala (Blues & New Zealand)
12 Regan King (Scarlets & New Zealand)
11 Jonah Lomu (Blues & New Zealand)
10 Dan Biggar (Ospreys & Wales)
9 Justin Marshall (Ospreys & New Zealand)
1 Gethin Jenkins (Blues & Wales)
2 Tom Willis (Dragons & New Zealand)
3 Deacon Manu (Scarlets & Fiji)
4 Luke Charteris (Dragons & Wales)
5 Brent Cockbain (Blues & Australia)
6 Simon Easterby (Scarlets & Ireland)
7 Jerry Collins (Ospreys & New Zealand)
8 David Lyons (Scarlets & Australia).
The dust will barely have had time to settle in Swansea before another batch of intriguing local affairs gets underway on the other side of the Irish Sea. Galway stages the first of several shuddering collisions between Ireland's four provinces, all four in pursuit of the GUINNESS PRO12 play-offs.
How many, or how few, are left standing when the top four positions are confirmed in early May makes every fixture all the more significant. The first of the five inter-pro duels in as many weeks features the biggest match of the GUINNESS PRO12 season hitherto - Connacht against Leinster.
It's first against second, the western outsiders against Dublin's finest. One has never finished higher than seventh, the other has made the top three every season, bar one.
When it comes to a capacity for catching everyone by surprise, Pat Lam's squad know no bounds. That other master of winning against the odds, Claudio Ranieri of Leicester City, could do worse than give the Kiwi a call in the event of the English foxes being run to ground.
Connacht, comfortably the GUINNESS PRO12's highest try scorers with an average fractionally short of three a game, have won five in a row, taking 24 points out of a maximum 25.
Leinster's game in hand has gone, a bonus point defeat in Glasgow last weekend, ensuring that the Cinderella Men stay out in front. Since then, Europe's triple former champions have been reunited with their formidable international contingent, likewise the Warriors with theirs.
The holders, indebted to Rory Clegg's goalkicking on his return to Glasgow after a spell in France, still have a game more to play than the five teams above them. It may not count for much unless head coach Gregor Townsend presides over a fifth straight win on Friday night. Champion teams get going when it matters most.
Ulster visit Scotstoun where they lost twice on successive Friday nights last May. The first secured the Warriors a home semi-final on the strength of a 32-10 win. The second, a tie of epic proportion that Ulster lost 14-16, put the Scots into the GUINNESS PRO12 Final one week later when Munster were swept off their feet, Paul O'Connell and all.
Munster, in sore need of a grandstand finish, are home to Zebre on Good Friday, a fixture of critical importance in the wake of their failure to prise as much as a losing bonus point out of last week's trip to Cardiff.
The top six and their remaining matches:
1st - Connacht 59 pts (Played 17):
Home: Leinster, Munster, Warriors.
Away: Ulster, Benetton Treviso.
2nd - Leinster 58 pts (Played 17):
Home: Munster, Edinburgh, Benetton Treviso.
Away: Connacht, Ulster.
3rd - Scarlets 53 pts (Played 17):
Home: Blues, Warriors.
Away: Ospreys, Dragons, Munster.
4th - Ulster 51 pts (Playted 17):
Home: Connacht, Leinster.
Away: Warriors, Zebre, Ospreys.
5th - Munster 47 pts (Played 17):
Home: Zebre, Edinburgh, Scarlets.
Away: Leinster, Connacht.
6th - Warriors, 47 pts (Played 16):
Home: Ulster, Zebre.
Away: Benetton Treviso, Scarlets, Zebre, Connacht.
Top-four finishes since introduction of the play-offs in season 2010-11 (maximum: 5):
Leinster 4, Munster 4,Ulster 4, Warriors 4, Ospreys 3, Scarlets 1
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