The DHL Stormers have booked their spot in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarter-finals alongside the Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks after a good penultimate weekend of league action for the three South African teams.
Unfortunately for the Emirates Lions, their hopes of sneaking into the top eight through the back door were dashed completely as they went down against the Scarlets in Johannesburg on Sunday, leaving them to play purely for pride in the final pool round next weekend.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks started off round 17 on a high note on Friday as they defeated the Ospreys 29-10 in Durban, and the Vodacom Bulls and DHL Stormers followed suit on Saturday as they beat Cardiff 45-21 in Pretoria and the Dragons 48-12 in Cape Town, respectively.
All three teams finished the round in the top eight, with the Vodacom Bulls and Hollywoodbets Sharks assured of home quarter-finals.
In stark contrast, the Emirates Lions saw their faint hopes of a quarter-final spot fall through their fingers as they succumbed to a disappointing 32-19 defeat against the Scarlets in Johannesburg.
These results, combined with the Glasgow Warriors’ surprising 33-7 defeat against to Benetton, saw the Vodacom Bulls finish the round in second place (63 points) behind Leinster (72), the Hollywoodbets Sharks in fourth place (58 points) and the DHL Stormers one place behind (50 points). The Emirates Lions are languishing in 13th position (35 points).
All four teams have home games next weekend as the league stages come to a close, but the Hollywoodbets Sharks will hope that Glasgow go down against Leinster and they win their match against the Scarlets to move up to third place, while the DHL Stormers will want to beat Cardiff to finish the pool stages in favourable fifth position.
Scarlets (48), Benetton (46), Munster (46), Cardiff (46), and Edinburgh (44) are still in the Race to the Eight, but Munster face Benetton in the final round, which may cost one of these two teams a spot in the quarter-finals.
