As the Aviva Premiership season enters its final stages, we take a look at who could be vying for a top four spot and a chance at securing the trophy come the end of the season.
You can view the Aviva Premiership table as it stands here.
It seems as though the top two spots will be contested by Exeter and Saracens, who meet this weekend in a top of the table clash. Victory for Saracens would see them draw level with Exeter on 57 points, whilst a win for Exeter would see them pull away eight points clear of their nearest rivals.
Wasps are next up sitting in third and looking fairly comfortable on 48 points. Although they aren’t quite contesting for the top spot, a few good results could see them challenging for the higher places come the end of the season. They are in the admirable position of being 6 points clear of fourth-placed Newcastle Falcons, which means they can focus solely on their own form without having to look at other team’s results.
Wasps play bottom-placed London Irish this weekend and will be looking to close the gap on the teams above them in the table.
Just three points separate the next places in the league. Fourth-placed Newcastle Falcons (46) travel to the Kingsholm stadium this weekend for their game against Gloucester (44), who currently occupy sixth.
With at least one team guaranteed to drop points, Bath City will be looking to capitalise in their Friday night fixture against Harlequins. Bath sit on 55 points currently, but with a victory against Quins they can move up to fourth.
The league standings will undoubtedly change after this weekend’s round of fixtures and they will continue to do so in the coming weeks. The race for the final play-off place might just come down to the final few games of the season.
Gloucester have an extremely difficult run-in towards the end of the season, having to play against Exeter, Bath and Saracens during their last 4 games.
Newcastle Falcons only game against top four opposition, after this weekend, is their final day clash against Wasps, so fortune should favour the North East side.
Bath arguably have the toughest run-in of the top four contenders, having to play both First placed Exeter Chiefs and second-placed Saracens before the close of the domestic Rugby calendar.
We can expect teams across the top six to change places a number of times in the coming weeks and with Leicester Tigers creeping up on them in seventh, we could even see a late push for the play-offs from the ten-time Premiership champions.
