The opening game of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, England v Fiji, may still have been a few weeks away but that didn't stop the Guinness PRO12 kicking off with a bang.
And there were plenty of early fireworks from Cardiff Blues as they opened their season with an 11-try victory over Zebre while reigning champions Glasgow Warriors lost at home to the Scarlets.
The Welsh region went on to win all six of their opening games, including a 25-14 win over Leinster in round four, before eventually coming unstuck to the same opposition in round seven.
Connacht also started the season strongly with just one loss, a single point defeat to Glasgow Warriors in round two, in their opening eight games.
Leinster too showed their capabilities early - recording ten straight victories after an opening day loss to Edinburgh.
Their run included a 24-7 victory over Munster, their fifth straight loss in all competitions, as Leinster leapfrogged their rivals into the play-off places.
Edinburgh secured bragging rights over Scottish rivals Glasgow in the 1872 Cup on December 27 with a 23-11 victory in front of over 23,000 fans at BT Murrayfield.
And Phil Burleigh's late try meant Edinburgh held onto Cup with a 14-11 win a week later.
Zebre Rugby also did a festive double over their nearest neighbours, Benetton Treviso, during round 10 and 11 with back to back wins, 28-25 and 18-8.
High-flying Connacht, who had lost to Ulster on St Stephen's Day, were beaten by Leinster in the round 11, in their first game of 2016.
Those two defeats came in the middle of a run of four successive league defeats but Pat Lam's side bounced back with a 30-17 win over Scarlets in round 13. Their next three games were all decided by a single point, a win and a loss to Edinburgh and victory over Ulster.
At Judgement Day IV, over 68,000 fans packed into Principality Stadium in Cardiff as Ospreys kept their faint hopes of a top-six finish alive with a 40-27 win over Cardiff Blues.
In the second game, Scott Williams returned from a knee injury that had kept him out since September with a man-of-the-match display as Scarlets beat Newport Gwent Dragons 34-20.
Glasgow Warriors needed a late surge for the play-offs with nine straight wins from round 15 when they beat Munster 27-24 with two tries from Sila Puafisi.
The Warriors saw off fellow play-off sides Leinster and Ulster in that run but came unstuck against Connacht, who they face in the semi-finals, in the last round with Tiernan O'Halloran's try separating the sides.
Scarlets just missed out on a semi-final spot after losses to Cardiff Blues, Glasgow and Munster in April and May saw them finish fifth.
Munster left it late to secure a European Champions Cup slot with a final day 31-15 win over Scarlets while Zebre will be joining the Irish side in Europe's premier cup competition after a 47-22 win over Newport Gwent Dragons saw them leapfrog Benetton Treviso.
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