33 / 48
www.
ULSTERRUGBY
.com
31
PRO14 UPDATE
Celtic Rugby and the South African Rugby Union confirmed earlier this
month that the Toyota Cheetahs and the Southern Kings will join an
expanded Guinness PRO14 tournament for the 2017/18 season.
GUINNESS PRO14 WELCOMES TOYOTA
CHEETAHS & SOUTHERN KINGS
A long-term strategic agreement has been
signed by both parties which will allow the
participation of two South African franchises in
the renamed Guinness PRO14 Championship.
The agreement means that the Championship
will take place across the northern and
southern hemispheres and marks the first
phase of expansion as the Guinness PRO14
becomes a truly global tournament.
This move will contribute to the drive for ever
higher standards across the tournament and
provide greater resources to the clubs who will
compete in the most testing environment the
Championship has ever created.
All current home and away derby games have
been protected - these fixtures are sacrosanct
to the tournament and those tribal rivalries are
just one element of what makes the Guinness
PRO14 so special.
With a new format, new teams and new
audiences the Guinness PRO14 - which leads
World Rugby statistics for Positive Play - will hit
even greater heights in 2017/18.
Ulster will kick off their exciting new
Championship season against Cheetahs on
Friday 1st September at Kingspan Stadium.
A limited number of tickets are still available
for this game, visit
www.ulsterrugby.com/buytickets to secure yours now.
NEW FORMAT
The addition of the Toyota Cheetahs and the
Southern Kings will require the Championship
to introduce a new Conference format as a
league format is not suited to a 14-team cross-
border tournament.
The Guinness PRO14 will adopt a two-
conference model which will allows for the
new clubs to be added into the Championship
without need to add extra rounds in 2017/18.
»
Each conference will contain 7 teams with
an equal split of teams from each union
»
Every team plays 21 regular season games
»
Every team to play each other at least
once
»
All Home & Away Derby fixtures will remain
in place
»
Italian, Scottish and South African teams
will play an additional Derby fixture to even
out the schedule (e.g. Edinburgh will play
Glasgow Warriors three times)
»
The Guinness PRO14 Final Series will now
include Quarter-Finals allowing six clubs
to reach the knock-out stages (teams 1-3
from each Conference)
»
The top 3 clubs from each conference
will qualify for the Champions Cup while
the team with the highest points total
outside of those six teams across both
conferences will claim the final Champions
Cup place
»
South African clubs will not be eligible to
qualify for EPCR tournaments at present
The Conferences need to fulfil two criteria.
First, there must be an equal number of
teams from each union in both conferences.
Secondly, there must be a competitive balance
based upon the previous season's final
placings that feed into union rankings.
To create an equal number of teams per union
each conference will contain:
»
2 Irish teams; 2 Welsh; 1 Italian; 1 Scottish,
1 South African
»
Additionally, for the entrance of the South
African teams their Super Rugby final
placings were used for ranking.
Please note: To maintain competitive
balance the Conferences will be reset each
season based upon rankings from the
previous campaign.