With the top eight confirmed, Saturday’s URC matches in Pretoria, Durban and Dublin will determine the Vodacom Bulls, Sharks and Stormers’ quarter-final opponents.
On Friday night, Edinburgh and Munster booked their playoff spots, with Edinburgh claiming a 47-17 bonus-point win against Ulster at Hive Stadium and Munster beating Benetton 30-21 in Limerick.
Those results ended the top-eight hopes of Cardiff, who lost 34-24 to the Stormers in Cape Town.
RECAP: Stormers lash Cardiff to lock in fifth
As it stands, the second-placed Bulls would host Edinburgh in the quarter-finals, with the fifth-placed Stormers heading to Durban to play the fourth-placed Sharks. But that would change if the Sharks beat Scarlets at Kings Park on Saturday and Glasgow lose to log-leaders Leinster in Dublin.
The Sharks would then host Munster in the quarter-finals, with the Stormers travelling to Scotland to take on Glasgow.
The eighth-placed Scarlets would move to sixth, above Munster and Edinburgh, with a win against the Sharks and to seventh, above Edinburgh, if they just picked up a bonus point. In the former case, the Bulls would host Munster. In the latter, Scarlets would go to Loftus.
In the unlikely event that the Bulls lost to bottom-placed Dragons at Loftus and Glasgow got a bonus-point win against Leinster, Glasgow would finish second and the Bulls third.
Photo: Cole Cruickshank/Gallo Images
