While the competition rules state that the four Vodacom URC Shield winners will qualify for the Heineken Champions’ Cup, as well as the next four best teams, there is also a rule that gives automatic qualification to the teams that win both the European competitions.

With three Vodacom URC sides still in the running in the EPCR Challenge Cup, it is not impossible that one of them would win the competition in the coming weeks and thereby attain automatic qualification for the Heineken Champions’ Cup as well.

If that scenario happens, it would mean that there would be one less qualification place on offer as teams head into the final round of the Vodacom URC league phase this weekend.

At the moment, three of the four shields have been decided with Leinster (Irish), the DHL Stormers (South African) and Glasgow Warriors (Scottish / Italian) all winning their respective conferences already this season, while the Welsh Shield will come down to the wire this weekend when Cardiff and Ospreys battle it out for title honours there and a place in the Heineken Champions’ Cup.

Glasgow, Benetton and the Scarlets at the three teams still in contention for the EPCR Challenge Cup, but the latter two have no chance of winning their respective shields, so a win for either the Italian side or the Welsh team would see them qualify automatically for the Heineken Champions’ Cup.

Scarlets play Glasgow Warriors on 29 April, while Benetton play Toulon a day later in the EPCR Challenge Cup semi-finals.

If that scenario comes to pass, it would heighten the pressure on the sixth, seventh and eighth placed sides in the Vodacom URC this weekend – namely the Cell C Sharks, Vodacom Bulls and Connacht.

Connacht face Glasgow this weekend so both the Vodacom Bulls and Cell C Sharks will be hoping that Franco Smith’s side does them a favour and stops the Irish province, preferably also denying them a bonus point in the process.

The KwaZulu-Natalians have a tough home game against Munster, the latter full of confidence after stopping the DHL Stormers’ unbeaten run, while the team from Pretoria face unbeaten log leaders Leinster this weekend in a double-header at Loftus Versfeld, with the other match between the Emirates Lions and Zebre Parma, on Saturday.

With the Welsh sides out of the top eight, it means only the top seven will qualify for the Heineken Champions’ Cup.

The Cell C Sharks are in the most precarious position on 46 points, while the Vodacom Bulls have 48 and Connacht 49. If both the South African sides win, they will then face an anxious wait to see what Connacht do against Glasgow before knowing who will qualify for the Heineken Champions’ Cup next season.

There is one other scenario that could work in the favour of at least one of the two South African sides – and that is if runaway Vodacom URC leaders Leinster win the Heineken Champions’ Cup, then it would return to normal and the EPCR Challenge Cup win would not make a difference.

But as it stands, Vodacom URC success in the EPCR Challenge Cup could see that both the Vodacom Bulls and Cell C Sharks miss out of Heineken Champions’ Cup qualification, which would be a tough pill to swallow from their point of view.