It has always been a faint hope but Edinburgh’s interest in playing in next year’s Champions Cup was strengthened considerably by a dramatic away win over Connacht as the league phase of Guinness PRO14 heads towards an interesting conclusion.
The teams to play in the final on 27 March were already established the previous weekend, with the old firm of Leinster and Munster booking their places, leaving the battle for a top-three finish in the two conferences that would enable qualification for Europe to take centre stage. The last week of league play is a busy one as some teams make up a backlog of fixtures caused by coronavirus disruptions.
Edinburgh has always been lagging in the race but have started to enjoy better form latterly and by beating Connacht with a late converted try at the Sportsground at the weekend they retain a mathematical chance of catching the third-placed Scarlets in Conference B. Scarlets have a 10-point advantage over the Scottish team but were not helped by being well beaten by Munster at the start of the weekend.
What gives Edinburgh hope is that they do have two games in hand, with Scarlets having just one game to play. Edinburgh can draw level with Scarlets on the table if they win both their games in hand with a bonus point. That seems unlikely, but it is possible, and it is also still possible for the Cardiff Blues to pip their Welsh rivals. The Blues are three points behind Scarlets in fourth place, but unlike Edinburgh, they don’t have a game in hand.
While Edinburgh’s Nathan Chamberlain converted his own last-minute try to grab the narrow win over Connacht, the Blues had to come from behind to win against Benetton to keep their hopes alive too. They were 11 points behind shortly before halftime against a fired-up Italian team and facing an uphill struggle before they got it together in the last hour of the game to win by 15 points.
The Blues picked up a bonus point in the process as they kept the strong pressure on the Scarlets and ensured that the Scarlets aren’t the only other team that Edinburgh is going to have to battle it out with for that coveted Champions Cup spot.
Another Welsh team in with a small chance of Cup qualification for next year, the Dragons, saw their remote hopes of grabbing third in Conference A finally extinguished by a near full-strength Ulster team at the Principality Stadium. The Dragons have been forced to play all their remaining three games at the national ground due to the state of their Rodney Parade pitch in Newport and needed to win all three to stand a chance of qualifying but fell at the first hurdle as Ulster snuck home 26-22.
However, while that result might have helped the third-placed Ospreys in the Conference A race, the Ospreys, in turn, didn’t help themselves by being defeated by Glasgow Warriors, their nearest rivals for Champions Cup qualification. The Ospreys still have the inside track but the Warriors are now seven points behind with a game in hand, meaning it is mathematically possible to sneak into qualification territory in the final week.
At the top of the table, Leinster joined their opponents in the final, Munster, by warming up with a comfortable win as they returned from their trip to Italy to play Zebre with full points.
Weekend Guinness PRO14 results
Zebre 31-48 Leinster
Munster 28-10 Scarlets
Glasgow Warriors 30-25 Ospreys
Dragons 22-26 Ulster
Connacht 14-15 Edinburgh
Benetton 14-29 Cardiff Blues