There are sub-plots and mini battles within the battle galore as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship heads into the penultimate round of the regular season but it is arguably the games in Johannesburg and Dublin that will determine who finishes in pole position.
The top ranked team gets a home ticket all the way to the final if they get that far, and at the moment that is Glasgow Warriors, who have pushed Leinster into what for them is the rare feeling of what it is like being in second place on a log table.
What it amounts to though is this, and it is not completely different to the permutations in soccer’s English Premier League this weekend - everyone talks about the final round being a decisive one, but deep down everyone probably also knows Manchester City will win at home to West Ham, which is all they need.
So the games in Johannesburg and Dublin are deciders, but they are not the only fixtures that hold that status in round 17. Connacht, like the Lions are on 44 points, seven points off the 51 that many consider to be the line that is drawn between top eight safety and being a probable also-ran. Not that the Stormers are without pressure and a knock-out attitude of their own. At 50 they are on the brink of being sure of top eight qualification, but will want to keep their hopes of a top four finish, meaning home ground advantage at the start of the Finals Series in June, alive by following up last week’s five point haul against the Dragons in Newport with another.
Munster, with an eight point advantage on the Stormers, are also potentially vulnerable to the team that they beat in last year’s Grand Final in Cape Town. But they will close off that possibility if they win away to Sean Everitt’s determined and hungry Edinburgh on Friday night.
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