I'd forgotten there was a playoff that year. That was the second leg of a two-way playoff and was the same day as the Heineken Cup final.
Wasps' home leg was on the previous Sunday.

In 2014, the Paris V Wasps qualifier was on Saturday afternoon in Paris. It's not beyond the bounds of possibility that there could be a play-off in Paris again this year....

RockSalt wrote: What are the (provisional) dates for these play off matches?

None yet. I contacted EPCR to see if they could give any hint but as expected, they said it depends on the participants and they will announce as soon as possible after they are known.
Two seasons ago, when there was just one game in each round, they were both on Sundays.
I would assume that they will try to avoid clashing with the semi-finals of the Pro12/Premiership and the Top 14 barrages the same weekend as much as possible. In particular since I would assume the game involving the Premiership team will be on BT Sport, they will avoid scheduling that one at the same time as either of those games. Last couple of seasons both of the Premiership semis were on Saturdays.
But since Wasps are nearly guaranteed a home semi and they always play their games on Sundays (every home game over the last two seasons other than one on Christmas eve and the last day of the season when everyone plays at the same time has been a Sunday), I would assume that they will have one Premiership semi on Saturday and one on Sunday. I would guess in that case they would probably play the playoff on Saturday.
So Saturday 20th would be my guess for the Premiership/Pro12 one. For the French one I have no idea, though they do like a Sunday kickoff.
An awful lot of assumptions and guesses in the above as you can see

RockSalt wrote: What are the (provisional) dates for these play off matches?

Semi Finals are the same weekend as the Pro 12 PO SF. Final is the following weekend (same as Pro 12 Final).

What are the (provisional) dates for these play off matches?

In terms of the AP:

(Pos, Team, Pts, Wins)

6th Saints 48 - 9
7th Quins 47 - 10
8th Glou 46 - 7

R21
Quins v Wasps
Chiefs v Saints
Bath v Gloucester

R22
Gloucester v Chiefs
Saints v Quins

Hard to see Gloucester getting a win in either of their games. Would fancy Wasps and Chiefs to win those games in R21, 6th/7th battle in R22 at the Gardens. Loser in the PO (assuming Gloucester don't produce an upset at La Rochelle and win Challenge Cup)

pinky wrote: I suppose if Connacht go to England and pull off the win, they should start favourites against any of those five.

Yes, I was going to say let's hope that worrying about how the Top 14 ends is a worthwhile endeavour.

At one point last weekend there was one point separating 5th and 11th in the Top 14.
Racing's win in Toulouse has taken them up into the qualification spots and in the process Toulouse are now out of contention (as predicted by everyone except me).
Paris have made 15 changes for tomorrow night's trip to Castres and the bookies have accordingly made the home team raging favourites.
That should be enough for them to join Racing in the top 6.
So that leaves 5 teams in the mix for the playoff spot (with only that one point between them).
Paris, Lyon, Bordeaux, Pau and Brive.
Each of them has one home and one away game left, so there's a very good chance all five will still be in contention on the last day. Any team that wins an away game is in pole position. Lyon have the easiest away trip (the short hop to Grenoble) but also the toughest home game (the short hop from Clermont). The fact they have the extra point over most teams probably makes them marginal favourites.
The real fun starts if two or more teams are tied. Then it goes to head to head, which could mean drawing up a mini-table with 3 or 4 teams. Whoever does the "as it stands" table for Canal + will earn his few quid that day.
I suppose if Connacht go to England and pull off the win, they should start favourites against any of those five.

Correct me if my maths is wrong here.
Cardiff are one point ahead with the same games won and a 25 point advantage in points difference.
We can fairly safely assume they will get the TBP against Zebre on Friday week and in the process open up an effectively insurmountable points difference lead.
Which means there is pretty much no way Connacht could get ahead of them with a single win. They would need seven points so a win and draw with a TBP thrown in would do it but realistically anything less than two wins would put them below Cardiff.
And of course even that would not be enough if Cardiff also beat Dragons in Caerphilly on the last day (which they'll probably be favourites to do).

So basically.
Connacht win both their games and Cardiff don't = France
Connacht lose either game or Cardiff win both = England

Stakeknife84 wrote: Looks like we'll be playing Quins or Gloucester. Not sure which is a better draw. Outside chance we could get Northampton which would be very tough.

For a travelling supporter the Saints could be great craic but Gloucester is a venue with some unfinished business...

Looks like we'll be playing Quins or Gloucester. Not sure which is a better draw. Outside chance we could get Northampton which would be very tough.

Mark Mostyn wrote: So if we don;t beat Leinster tonight we're pretty much guaranteed to finish 8th. Some people seem to think that would be a good thing but I couldn't disagree more. Would you rather go to England on a four match unbeaten run including a BP win over the best province from your country, or go to France on a poor run of form, low on confidence just because of the possibility of a home final?

Eh? It's the other way around. Poor results mean we go to England ...

South Mayo fans.
Diversion on the corrib line due to Bush fire.
Go another way if you can.

They really made a joke out of this league didn't they?

So if we don;t beat Leinster tonight we're pretty much guaranteed to finish 8th. Some people seem to think that would be a good thing but I couldn't disagree more. Would you rather go to England on a four match unbeaten run including a BP win over the best province from your country, or go to France on a poor run of form, low on confidence just because of the possibility of a home final?

35 - 17 to Cardiff with 10 minutes to go. Cardiff have TBP and more than likely will get the 5 points unless there is an amazing comeback by Ospreys.

We really need a result tonight or the competition for 7th is over.