The BKT United Rugby Championship playoff race is starting to come to the boil, as we head into the final five rounds of the regular season.
With just Leinster, Benetton and the Sharks still involved in the latter stages of the Champions and Challenge Cups, it means 13 of the 16 teams in the URC now have a singular focus.
For some, it's cementing their place in the top four to guarantee home advantage in the quarter-finals, while for everyone else down as far as the 11th-place Lions, there looks to be a very realistic chance of breaking into the playoffs - and securing Champions Cup rugby for next season.
Just five points separate the Johannesburg side in 11th from the Stormers up in fifth. At this stage of the season every bonus-point matters.
Both Leinster and Munster are in South Africa this week for the first of their two games on tour.
Leinster, who have left behind many of their frontline stars for the Johannesburg trip, take on the Lions at Ellis Park on Saturday, while fourth-place Munster face the third-place Bulls in the pick of this week's games.
Ulster are first up of the Irish sides, hosting Cardiff in Belfast for what is Richie Murphy's first home game in charge, while Connacht face Zebre on Saturday night in a must-win game for the province.
ONLINE
We'll have live scoring as well as reports and reaction from the games.
TV
You can see live coverage of Emirates Lions v Leinster and Vodacom Bulls v Munster from 1.30pm on Saturday on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Ulster v Cardiff (Friday 7.35pm) and Connacht v Zebre (Saturday 7.35pm) are both live on TG4.
All games are also shown live on URC.tv.
WEATHER
There should be good conditions for rugby in Belfast in Friday night, with Ulster hosting the Lions. Temperatures of around 11C re forecast with no rain expected.
Both Leinster and Munster will be dealing with heat in the Highveld on Saturday afternoon, with both Johannesburg and Pretoria expected to have temperatures in the high 20s.
Things will be much more benign in Galway on Saturday evening for Connacht v Zebre, with a mild 14C expected. A dry day with very little wind should provide ideal conditions for rugby.
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After one month and four games in interim charge, Richie Murphy finally has his first home game in charge of Ulster, with a plucky Cardiff side the visitors to Belfast.
The Welsh outfit look a little too far back to make a run at the playoffs, but Matt Sherratt's side are better than the form book would suggest. While they've lost five games in a row in the URC, four of those have been one-score games, and the other was a 33-20 defeat to Leinster in which they caused the leaders real problems.
Ulster have lost three of their last four URC games, but could go up to fifth in the table - temporarily - if they get a bonus-point win.
They've only lost twice at home in all competitions this season, against Edinburgh in Round 7 of the URC, and to Toulouse in the Champions Cup.
Cardiff's last win against Ulster came back in March 2018, while you have to go all the way back to April 2010 for their most recent win in Belfast.
Ulster: Will Addison; Mike Lowry, James Hume, Jude Postlethwaite, Jacob Stockdale; Jake Flannery, Nathan Doak; Eric O'Sullivan, Tom Stewart, Scott Wilson; Harry Sheridan, Alan O’Connor (capt); Dave Ewers, Marcus Rea, Dave McCann
Replacements: John Andrew, Andrew Warwick, Tom O’Toole, Cormac Izuchukwu, Greg Jones, John Cooney, Billy Burns, Ethan McIlroy
Cardiff Rugby: Cam Winnett; Josh Adams, Mason Grady, Ben Thomas, Theo Cabango; Tinus de Beer, Ellis Bevan; Corey Domachowski, Liam Belcher (capt), Keiron Assiratti; Ben Donnell, Teddy Williams; Alex Mann, Thomas Young, Taulupe Faletau
Replacements: Rhys Carré, Evan Lloyd, Ciaran Parker, Rory Thornton, Ellis Jenkins, Gonzalo Bertranou, Jacob Beetham
Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)
Leinster were 39-36 winners when these sides met in Johannesburg just over a year ago to the day, with the Irish side coming from 15 points down in the final 20 minutes to win with the final play of the game, Sam Prendergast landing a winning penalty on his debut with the clock in the red.
As they have in recent seasons, Leinster have left many of their frontline stars at home for their tour of South Africa, with Leo Cullen's side five clear at the top of the table.
The leaders have lost just twice so far this season, away to Glasgow on the opening weekend, before a New Year's Day defeat to Ulster, while they have won six of their last seven games against South African teams.
This will be the third meeting of Leinster and the Lions, with the Irish side winning both previous encounters.
The Lions come into the game in 11th place, but have won three of their last four at home, and have plenty to play for, with Ivan Van Rooyen's side just one point back from the playoff spots.
Lions: Quan Horn; Richard Kriel, Erich Cronje, Marius Louw (capt), Edwill van der Merwe; Sanele Nohamba, Morne van den Berg; Morgan Naude, PJ Botha, Ruan Dreyer; Willem Alberts, Ruan Delport; JC Pretorius, Emmanuel Tshituka, Francke Horn.
Replacements: Jaco Visagie, JP Smith, Asenathi Ntlabakanye, Reinhard Nothnagel, Sibusiso Sangweni, Nico Steyn, Jordan Hendrikse, Henco van Wyk
Leinster: Ciarán Frawley; Rob Russell, Liam Turner, Charlie Ngatai, Andrew Osborne; Harry Byrne, Luke McGrath; Cian Healy, Lee Barron, Thomas Clarkson; Brian Deeny, Jason Jenkins; Diarmuid Mangan, Scott Penny (capt), Max Deegan.
Replacements: John McKee, Michael Milne, Michael Ala'alatoa, Ross Molony, Rhys Ruddock, Cormac Foley, San Prendergast, Ben Brownlee.
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
Four consecutive URC wins have seen Munster climb up into the top four of the table, but with a difficult schedule in their final five matches, Graham Rowntree's side will know the hard work is only starting if they want to secure a home quarter-final.
The province have brought their best squad available to South Africa, and it starts with the game of the weekend, as they face the Bulls, who are just two points ahead of the in the table.
The home side have won both meetings between the pair, with the South African's 29-24 winners in the 2022 meeting at Loftus Versfeld.
Coincidentally both sides come into the game off the back of defeats against Northampton Saints in the Champions Cup, and both should be fairly well rested, with most of the Bulls' frontline players staying at home rather than making the trip to England last week.
Bulls have won their last seven home URC matches since their 29-25 loss to the Lions at Loftus Versfeld in March 2023, but Munster showed last year that they have no fear playing in South Africa, as they went undefeated in their three games en route to the URC title.
Bulls: Willie Le Roux; Kurt-Lee Arendse, Canan Moodie, David Kriel, Sebastien de Klerk; Johan Goosen, Embrose Papier; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw; Ruan Vermaak, JF van Heerden; Cameron Hanekom, Reinhardt Ludwig, Elrigh Louw (capt).
Replacements: Akker van der Merwe, Simphiwe Matanzima, Mornay Smith, Janko Swanepoel, Mpilo Gumede, Zak Burger, Chris Smith, Devon Williams
Munster: Simon Zebo; Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Alex Nankivell, Shane Daly; Jack Crowley, Conor Murray; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Stephen Archer; RG Snyman, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Peter O'Mahony, Alex Kendellen, Jack O’Donoghue.
Replacements: Eoghan Clarke, Josh Wycherley, Oli Jager, Tom Ahern, Gavin Coombes, Craig Casey, Joey Carbery, John Hodnett.
Referee: Adam Jones (WRU)
It looked like Connacht were tipping along nicely when they started 2024 with three consecutive wins in the URC, but a shock defeat to the Lions at home was followed by a loss away to Benetton, which has left them in a dogfight to make the playoffs.
With games against Munster, Stormers and Leinster to finish out the season, it's absolutely vital that Pete Wilkins' side pick up wins against Zebre and Dragons over the next week - and ideally with bonus-points.
After a reasonable start to the season, the Italians have lost eight in a row in the URC, and haven't won away from home since January 2021.
Connacht have only lost three times to the Parma side, with the last of those coming at the Sportsground back in February 2018.
Connacht: Shane Jennings; John Porch, Tom Farrell, Bundee Aki, Andrew Smith; JJ Hanrahan, Matthew Devine; Jordan Duggan, Dave Heffernan (capt), Finlay Bealham; Joe Joyce, Niall Murray; Shamus Hurley-Langton, Conor Oliver, Seán O'Brien.
Replacements: Tadgh McElroy, Peter Dooley, Sam Illo, Oisín Dowling, Jarrad Butler, Caolin Blade, Cathal Forde, Paul Boyle.
Zebre Parma: Lorenzo Pani; Jacopo Trulla, Scott Gregory, Fetuli Paea, Simone Gesi; Geronimo Prisciantelli, Gonzalo Garcia; Muhamed Hasa, Giampietro Ribaldi, Juan Pitinari; Leonard Krumov, Andrea Zambonin; Guido Volpi, Davide Ruggeri, Giovanni Licata (capt).
Replacements: Tommaso Di Bartolomeo, Danilo Fischetti, Riccardo Genovese, Matteo Canali, Iacopo Bianchi, Thomas Dominguez, Franco Smith Jr, Enrico Lucchin.
Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (SARU)
