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The worst kept secret in rugby was made official today – South Africa is to join the Guinness Pro 12. The discarded Super Rugby franchises the Southern Kings and Cheetahs will play in the upcoming Celtic-Italian League. The expansion sees the competition rebranded as the Guinness Pro 14 Championship.
The new format has been drawn up to reflect the historic home and away Derby games. This has been done by dividing the fourteen teams into two conferences of seven. Ireland and Wales account for eight of the fourteen teams and, as such, Italian, Scottish and South African teams are to play an additional Derby fixture to even out the schedule (e.g. Edinburgh will play Glasgow Warriors three times).
| CONFERENCE A | CONFERENCE B |
| Munster (Limerick, Ireland) | Scarlets (Llanelli, Wales) |
| Ospreys (Swansea, Wales) | Leinster (Dublin, Ireland) |
| Glasgow Warriors (Glasgow, Scotland) | Ulster (Belfast, Northern Ireland) |
| Cardiff Blues (Cardiff, Wales) | Edinburgh (Scotland) |
| Connacht (Galway, Ireland) | Benetton Treviso (Treviso, Italy) |
| Zebre (Parma, Italy) | Dragons (Newport, Wales) |
| Cheetahs (Bloemfontein, South Africa) | Southern Kings (Port Elizabeth, South Africa) |
All teams are to play 21 regular season matches. These are to be arranged so that all teams play each other at least once.
Changes behind the regular season see the introduction of a barrage play-off’s round, similar to that used in the Top 14. In the Guinness Pro 14 Championship the round will be called Quarter Finals. It is to, like in France, see six teams officially competing in the play-off’s.
The best three teams from the Guinness Pro 14 Championship conferences will qualify for the European Champions Cup. The remaining team with the highest points total outside of those six teams across both conferences will claim the final Champions Cup place. The Southern Kings and Cheetahs are not eligible to compete in the Champions Cup.
The conferences are to be rest each season to allow for meritocracy. This will be done based on rankings from the previous campaign.
All teams are to have twelve Home & Away games within their team’s conference. This will be in addition to seven Home OR Away games against each team from the other conference.
The Guinness Pro 14 Championship confirms that rounds 1-13 are to be made official next week (commencing August 7) after the Championship’s broadcast partners have made their selections for live television broadcasts and the clubs have been consulted.
The new competition will involve players from the Americas. It is also, potentially to be of added interest due to the reported inclusion of a team from Washington D.C. starting in 2018.
