All to play for in URC 'Race to the Eight'
Diarmuid Mangan will be hoping to build on last week's Man of the Match performance when he lines out this Saturday against the Ospreys. Photo: INPHO/Dan Sheridan.
The United Rugby Championship's 'Race to the Eight' will reach it's most dramatic of conclusions this week, with five Kildare players named for Leinster, Minster and Connacht.
All 16 teams will play their final game of the regular season, with nine teams vying for a place in the top eight.
Besides the one remaining place in the playoffs being up for grabs, this weekend's results will also determine the seedings for the quarter-finals and beyond.
Up first are Connacht, with Stuart Lancaster's side away to Edinburgh and in desperate need of a win.
Connacht's recent good form has seen the province go through quite the resurgence since the turn of the year, yet they come into the final weekend as the side just outside the playoff places.
Yet even a bonus-point win may not be enough for a top-eight finish if those directly above Connacht - Ulster (home to Glasgow), Cardiff (home to Stormers) and Munster (home to Lions) - all win their games.
Kildare's Cian Prendergast and Billy Bohan remain fixed in the Connacht starting lineup.
Prendergast continues his explosive back-row combination with Shamus Hurley-Langton and Sean Jansen, while Bohan's remarkable growth as a senior tighthead sees him linking up with Eoin de Buitléar and Irish international, Finlay Bealham, in the front row.
A win for Leinster would see them climb into the top two and secure home quarter- and semi-finals, should they get that far; but only if there is slip up from league leaders Glasgow (away to Ulster) or second-place Stormers (away to Cardiff).
The game is a free hit for the Ospreys, who cannot finish above tenth.
Leo Cullen has named two Kildare men in his starting XV for the game including Jimmy O'Brien, who will be looking to continue his rich vein of form as he starts at full back.
Diarmuid Mangan, meanwhile, who returned last week from three months on the sideline to come on for the injured Will Connors and put in a 60-minute Man of the Match performance, will be hoping to lay down another marker ahead of next week's Champions Cup Final, when he starts in the second row alongside Joe McCarthy.
Jamie Osborne is rested ahead of that final, while Sam Prendergast has been omitted from the 23 entirely as Harry Byrne gets the nod at ten while Ciaran Frawley is on the bench.
Munster and the Lions will be the final teams to take to the field and will know exactly what they need to do to finish as high as possible.
A win for Munster is highly unlikely to be enough for them to leapfrog the Bulls into fourth place. The South African side are at home to a Benetton team that has offered little resistance in the last few weeks as they languish in 13th.
The Lions, meanwhile, only need only a losing bonus-point or a try bonus-point to secure their place in the playoffs.
Jeremy Loughman is the only Kildare man involved for Munster as he starts in the front row alongside Niall Scannell and Michael Ala’alatoa.
Captain Tadhg Beirne is still out with a knee injury, while there is no place for Diarmuid Kilgallen, who agreed a two-year contract extension this week that will keep him at the province until 2028.
