There are six play-off places up for grabs as the inaugural Guinness Pro14 championship reaches the end of the regular season.
The top three teams from each conference progress to the knock-out stages.
Within that the winners of each conference are guaranteed a home semi-final against the winners from the quarter-finals.
The runners-up from each conference has a home tie against the third-place team in the other conference.
The race for Champions Cup qualification will also be decided.
The top three European teams from each table go into the elite tournament – the South Africa sides are not eligible – along with the winner of a play-off between the two fourth-placed teams.
All others, minus the African teams, take the Challenge Cup route.
Conference A
Munster
Ahead of their trip to South Africa, Munster find themselves in second place in the table, 12 points behind 2015 champions Glasgow Warriors, who have a game in hand.
Glasgow, already sure of a post-season game, need just four more points from four games to secure the top spot and a home semi-final.
Three of those games are away from home (Scarlets, Ulster and Edinburgh) and one at home (Connacht) but it’s hard to see them failing to get one win from those ties.
New boys Cheetahs are Munster’s closest rivals for a home quarter-final. The teams meet on 13 April in Bloemfontein.
However, should the Cheetahs lose without a bonus point at home to Cardiff on Saturday, and Johann van Graan’s men beat the rock-bottom Southern Kings in Outeniqua Park, George later that day with a bonus point they would secure their seeding with two games to spare.
Munster will wrap up their campaign at home against Ulster on the last weekend in April.
Connacht
The 2016 champions have been well off the pace this season, their first under new coach Kieran Keane.
Hopes of salvation lay in the Challenge Cup but a 33-28 quarter-final defeat to Gloucester at the weekend means the season will end with a whimper.
They have managed just six Pro14 wins all season and although they could mathematically reach fourth place and a Champions Cup play-off, they would need Cardiff to slip up spectacularly i.e. fail to pick up two points from their three remaining games.
Connacht finish their long season with trips to Ospreys, Glasgow and a home tie with Leinster.
It’s the Challenge Cup again next season for the men from the west.
Conference B
Leinster
Four-time winners Leinster are firm favourites to win the division.
They sit three points clear of Scarlets with three games remaining, two of them coming at home against Zebre and Treviso.
The conquerors of Champions Cup holders Saracens follow those Italian jobs up with a trip to the Sportsground to face Connacht but something will have gone alarmingly wrong should they require a win in Galway to guarantee top spot.
Ulster
Ulster lie in fourth, 13 points behind Edinburgh, with four games to play. Overhauling the Scots for a play-off place seems very unlikely.
The sides meet at the weekend in Murrayfield but the run-in includes home games with Ospreys and Glasgow and an away day in Thomond Park.
Jono Gibbes men will strive to get there but cementing their current place, which guarantees a Champions Cup play-off (against Ospreys, as it stands), is their most likely route.
Benetton, with a game more played, lie just one point behind the Belfast-based team with games to come against Dragons, Leinster and Zebre.
It's far too close for comfort for Ulster and they'll need to produce the goods to get their play-off shot.
