So with Connacht, Edinburgh and Cardiff Blues all picking up two wins in the Challenge Cup, that throws up an odd scenario.
The Pro14 7th placed playoff will most likely be Edinburgh v Connacht or Cardiff, so what happens if the final the next weekend features the same two teams?
The winner of the playoff would qualify as the 7th Pro14 team and the loser would qualify either as the Challenge Cup winner or the Challenge Cup runner up (as the winner is already qualified), thus rendering the playoff completely meaningless. Would they bother playing it in this case?

Also if one of the playoff teams is in the Challenge Cup final against an English or French team that has already secured qualification through their league. So say Connacht play Edinburgh in the playoff and Lyon in the final the next week and Lyon are already six points clear of sixth in the Top14 and can't be caught. In that case Connacht are qualified regardless. A win would for them would just trigger a playoff between the losing semi-finalists, so better off just letting Edinburgh win!

In a pool with a way better Lyon than usual + Cardiff + Sale, Toulouse won't go through now IMO.

And that's a hell of a good suprise. Our worst opponent.
Connacht is able to beat anyone else in this competition. Objectively

I think that result paired with a draw last week might wain their interest in the competition, which as far as I'm concerned is good news, although as we know all too well Cardiff are a tough task in their own right

A try for Laranjeira should be enough for a free giraffe for les Oyonnaxiens.
Great win for Blues in the Ernest Wallon, though I'm not sure how good news that is. If Connacht end up with a home QF, we could end up with a visit from Toulouse, or worse, have to go there for a semi. Ah I'm probably getting ahead of myself. Better win a few more games before I worry about what part of France we go to in April.

Brive and Oyonnax both rotated a fair bit again for their game tomorrow, but still not anywhere near their Top14 teams (in Oyonnax's case obviously it wouldn't have been possible to put out a full-strength team anyway).
The only consolation for Oyonnax if they lose is that Thomas Laranjeira is starting at 10, so beer should be free, and that will help balance the budget after the Geneva prices last weekend. That said I think Gaetane Germain at fullback is a handy placekicker and I'm not sure how flaithiulach Thomas is if he doesn't score all the points.
www.epcrugby.com/matchcentre/36521.php

On a much less windy note, Connacht are now 11/2 joint favourites to win the Challenge Cup . Roll on Saturday and get this season going....

Brillant!! Any time you can throw in a Tom Clancy reference is a good time - especially Hunt for Red October!!

Bordeaux racking up the points in Krasnoyarsk. Enisei do so much better when they're in some other random part of Russia than when they're actually at home.
www.epcrugby.com/liveblog.php
It's a balmy three degrees out there too.

Ah geddit, we can be the first to lose three playoff games. Yes, yes, there is a special plaque for that in the office somewhere (I think it's in the absinthe cupboard).

Well to be in the losing-challenge-cupsemi-finalists-gameday34-repechage (or whatever) we'd have to win the Challenge Cup Q/F, lose the semi and lose the Pro14 7th place playoff match (I know I'm assuming 5th in our conference isn't beyond us here, but work with me). At that point we are (other CC semi result permitting) just one loss from history...

salmson wrote: So basically you're saying we could become the first rugby team to have 3 playoff games in the same season? Anywhere I can lay money on this?

There's a third one? I've lost count already.

pinky wrote: We've gone from no European Qualification playoffs to potentially two separate ones in the space of a couple of weeks. If we get into this one and lose it, we could end up in the Beaten Challenge Cup Semi-Finalists Playoff the following weekend.

So basically you're saying we could become the first rugby team to have 3 playoff games in the same season? Anywhere I can lay money on this?

Con, Sonar: Crazy Ivan!

Actually it makes a lot more sense than the original way. Still gives an incentive to finish ahead of Edinburgh (presumably) but doesn't condemn us completely if we don't.
And it seems to be coming from the Pro14 rather than our friend in Neuchatel (who we are making a point of not visiting this weekend even though we're going to be just down the road).

We've gone from no European Qualification playoffs to potentially two separate ones in the space of a couple of weeks. If we get into this one and lose it, we could end up in the Beaten Challenge Cup Semi-Finalists Playoff the following weekend.

Interesting EPCR-ish changing the rules as you go along alert:

www.pro14rugby.org/2017/10/09/play-off-g...lace-guinness-pro14/

From our POV it means that 5th would be enough to get us a playoff spot if Cheetahs finish above us.

Plus Worcester are losing their new coach at the end of the season - off to USA - happy dressing room there, you'd imagine.

www.the42.ie/gary-gold-usa-appointment-3625683-Oct2017/

All Connacht's pool opponents got thrashed at the weekend and are now serious relegation candidates. Wouldn't be a big surprise if all 3 of them went down.
The squad lists that were up last week are taken down now so presumably they were never meant to be published.