Who Kings & Cheetahs play in Pro14
The Southern Kings and Cheetahs are officially part of the new Pro14. The South African duo feature in different conferences. This is who they will play.
The BBC reported the competition (an expansion of Pro12) splits the teams into two conferences of seven. Each conference features the following: two Welsh, two Irish and one team each from Scotland, Italy and South Africa.
The conferences have been decided based on last season’s results.
Cheetahs and Kings will play their home games in South Africa.
They will play only Saturdays, and there will be five travel-free days before matches.
The first round of matches is due to be played on the weekend of 1-3 September, though the fixtures have not yet been released.
The South African teams lost their places in the southern hemisphere Super Rugby, which is cutting from 18 teams to 15, at the end of last season.
Last season’s tournament was won by Scarlets, who beat Munster in the play-off final in Dublin.
Conference A
- Munster (IRFU)
- Ospreys (WRU)
- Glasgow Warriors (SRU)
- Cardiff Blues (WRU)
- Connacht (IRFU)
- Zebre Rugby Club (FIR)
- Toyota Cheetahs (SA Rugby)
Conference B
- Scarlets (WRU)
- Leinster (IRFU)
- Ulster (IRFU)
- Edinburgh (SRU)
- Benetton Rugby (FIR)
- Dragons (WRU)
- Southern Kings (SA Rugby)
- Each conference will contain 7 teams with an equal split of teams from each union
- Every team plays 21 regular season games
- Every team to play each other at least once
- All Home & Away Derby fixtures will remain in place
- Italian, Scottish and South African teams will play an additional Derby fixture to even out the schedule (e.g. Edinburgh will play Glasgow Warriors three times)
- The Guinness PRO14 Final Series will now include Quarter-Finals allowing six clubs to reach the knock-out stages (teams 1-3 from each Conference)
- The top 3 clubs from each conference will qualify for the Champions Cup while the team with the highest points total outside of those six teams across both conferences will claim the final Champions Cup place
