When has any major league competition gone into the final round of the regular season with so much to be won or lost? The possibilities take some explaining in simple terms but here goes:
Any one of three teams could still finish top of the table - Glasgow Warriors, Connacht or Leinster.
Any one of four teams could still finish second - Glasgow Warriors, Connacht, Leinster or Ulster.
Three teams are still in contention for the two remaining play-off places - Leinster, Ulster and Scarlets. (Warriors and Connacht are already there).
Three others can still finish sixth and snatch a Champions' Cup place - Munster, Ospreys and Edinburgh. Irrespective of what does or does not happen elsewhere, Munster will end the argument once and for all provided they beat Scarlets at Thomond Park.
But…should the double former European champions finish up empty-handed, Ospreys and Edinburgh could still pip them at the post. Ospreys would have to secure at least four points by beating Ulster in Swansea while Edinburgh would need all five from Cardiff Blues at Murrayfield.
Should all those scenarios come to pass, Munster, Ospreys and Scotland's capital team would be level on 58 points and level on wins. In that event their final placing would be determined by points-difference with Ospreys standing at +55, Edinburgh +43 and Munster +26.
Round 22, kicking-off simultaneously at 3pm on Saturday, is worth looking at match-by-match for the who's who and the what's what:
Connacht v Glasgow Warriors, at the Sports Ground, Galway:
Whoever arranged this fixture for the final round must be related to Nostradamus. Second against first with the winner guaranteed a home run to the Guinness PRO12 Final in Edinburgh on May 28.
If the Warriors extend their winning streak into double figures, they will finish first and clinch a semi-final in Glasgow. A Connacht win would guarantee them a home semi and leave the holders to take their chance on the road with every likelihood it would lead them straight back to Galway later this month.
It will be quite something if the match turns out to be like their last meeting, at Scotstoun in the second week of September. As close-run things go, that couldn't have been any closer, the Warriors scraping home by a single point in 65 - 33-32.
Connacht have won 12 out of 13 at home all season. The holders have not lost since mid-February and last week's rout of Zebre smashed an all-time PRO12 record, Duncan Weir's ten conversions eclipsing the nine Brendan Laney kicked for Edinburgh against Caerphilly 14 years ago.
Something will have to give, unless they end up all-square in which event Connacht's debut in the play-offs will be a fair way from Galway, probably in Glasgow or Dublin.
Leinster v Benetton Treviso at the RDS, Dublin:
A maximum point home win will ensure Leinster stay put for the play-offs irrespective of the Connacht-Warriors result. Treviso will believe that having ambushed one Irish contender last week, they might just be able to ambush another, an outcome so improbable as to justify elevation to the David v Goliath category.
Treviso have not won on the road since beating Zebre on December 27, 2014. And they have not won outside Italy since overwhelming the Scarlets 41-17 in May 2013.
Ospreys v Ulster, at Liberty Stadium, Swansea:
Ulster started the regular season with a bonus-point win over Ospreys. How they would love to finish it with another to ensure they are not pipped at the post for the play-offs by the Scarlets.
Ospreys have good reasons other than professional pride for needing to settle the score. Their spectacular late win over the Blues on Judgement Day in Cardiff last weekend has given them renewed hope that they may yet scramble into the Champions' Cup for next season.
Having endured the first three matches of the season without a try, the former double champions have been running them in from all over the place in the last three - 17 in total with three apiece for full back Dan Evans, scrum half Rhys Webb and wing Hanno Dirksen, the victim of a 'significant' knee ligament injury last weekend.
Munster v Scarlets, at Thomond Park, Limerick:
Rarely, if ever, can so much hinge on the outcome of a duel between teams occupying the upper-middle positions. Sixth plays fifth with both desperate to finish on a winning note.
A second home win after seizing a five-point haul from Edinburgh in Cork last week will preserve Munster's record of never failing to qualify for Europe's top club competition. Defeat, on the other hand, would expose them to being overtaken by Ospreys and-or Edinburgh - unlikely but stranger things have happened, like Leicester City's crowning as champions of English football.
Scarlets, their Champions' Cup place already assured, make the trip without Wales tighthead Samson Lee knowing that a grandstand finish could take them back into the play-off zone. They also know they can't get there under their own steam. Ironically, they will need a mighty shove in the right direction from their ancient local rivals in the form of an Ospreys win over Ulster.
Edinburgh v Cardiff Blues, at Murrayfield:
One point out of a maximum ten from visits to Dublin and Cork torpedoed Edinburgh's prospects of surfacing in the play-offs but at least they still have a hope, however faint, of making the top six which is more than can be said of their opponents.
The Blues' late collapse against Ospreys on a Judgement Day witnessed by almost 70,000 at the Principality Stadium ended a winning four-match streak and with it the last hope of a top-six finish.
Zebre v Newport Gwent Dragons, at XXV Aprile Stadium, Parma:
Treviso's staggering home win over Connacht has lifted them off the bottom and in place to represent Italy in the Champions' Cup. It has also elevated Zebre's last match of the campaign to the must-win category.
Victory over the Dragons would put them in the Champions' Cup, unless, of course, Treviso manage an even more unlikely piece of giant-killing in Dublin.
While the Dragons are to be congratulated on carrying the Guinness PRO12 flag single-handedly into the semi-finals of the Challenge Cup, the fact remains that they have lost all nine Guinness PRO12 matches since overwhelming Leinster at Rodney Parade in late January.
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