The Premiership‘s semi-finals have been confirmed with the four highest-ranked teams from the regular season now battling it out to determine the overall winner of the league.
Bath, Leicester Tigers, Sale Sharks and Bristol Bears are the four teams with a chance to win some silverware, finishing in that order, with Bath winning the regular season.
The draw will see the first-placed team hosting the fourth, and the team in second hosting third place.
That means Bath will host Bristol Bears at The Rec, and Leicester Tigers will play Sale Sharks at Welford Road.
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Final Day Jeopardy
The only one of the four teams that were confirmed in their position was Bath, who had secured their place at the top of the table with three games to go and rotated their team heavily against Saracens as a result.
Everyone else had something to play for, with Tigers needing a win to maintain their spot as home semi-finalists and Sale and Bristol needing to fight off Gloucester and Saracens to stay in the top four.
As it happened, all three won, and they stayed in the same positions as they were going into the final round.
Any slip-up would have proved fatal, as Gloucester and Sarries both won their games.
Sale came closest to dropping out of the play-offs, struggling for large portions against Exeter Chiefs, but they pushed through and ran out 30-26 winners at Sandy Park.
Upcoming Semis
The Bath v Bristol clash will take place on Friday, June 6th at 19:45 (BST), with Leicester v Sale scheduled for 15:30 (BST) on Saturday, June 7th.
A new Premiership winner will be crowned, with reigning champions Northampton Saints finishing eighth and missing out on the play-offs following a poor domestic season.
For last year’s runners-up Bath, it could be a rare treble in rugby after they have already secured silverware in the Prem Rugby Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup.
Bristol Bears are the only team in the play-offs to have never won the Prem previously, with 11 titles for Tigers, six for Bath and one for Sale since the 1987/88 season.
Since the play-offs were brought in in the 2002/03 season, Sale have won the title once and Leicester five times, with all of Bath’s success coming back when the league was won by the table-topper at the end of the season.
The semis will be shown in the United Kingdom on TNT Sports, with the games also available to stream through Discovery+.
READ MORE: Premiership Team of the Season – Bath and Sale dominate 2024/25 best XV
Premiership Semi-Finals
Bath (1) v Bristol Bears (4)
Venue: The Rec, Bath
Kick-off: 19:45 (BST), Friday June 6th
Live on: TNT Sports 1, Discovery + (UK)
Leicester Tigers (2) v Sale Sharks (3)
Venue: Welford Road, Leicester
Kick-off: 15:30 (BST), Saturday June 7th
Live on: TNT Sports 2, Discovery + (UK)
By Charlie Elliott
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