RaboDirect PRO12: Final Preview
After 22 rounds and two play-off games, the 2012/13 RaboDirect PRO12 season wraps up on Saturday with the final at the RDS appropriately between respective first and second seeds and provincial rivals, Ulster and Leinster.
Amlin Challenge Cup holders Leinster have made it through to their fourth straight RaboDirect PRO12 final, but have yet to win one although they were champions in the inaugural season, 2001/02, and again in 2007/08.
For Ulster it will be their first opportunity to compete for the title through a play-off, having last taken the league crown in 2006.
In the three previous play-off finals the top seeds have become champions just once, when Munster defeated Leinster 19-9 at Thomond Park in 2011.
In the other two finals, both held at the RDS, that season’s top seeds Leinster were defeated by the second-placed team, the Ospreys. No team that finished lower than second in the table during the regular season has ever lifted the title.
RABODIRECT PRO12 FINAL:
Saturday, May 25 –
ULSTER (1st) v LEINSTER (2nd), the RDS, 4.45pm (live BBC 2 Northern Ireland/TG4/RTÉ Two/BBC ALBA/BBC 2 Wales/SportItalia 2)