SO Worcester Warriors did what was necessary at the weekend to give themselves the best chance of making the knockout stages of the European Challenge Cup by beating Italian side Zebre with a bonus-point.
They currently sit second in Pool A but have now played all of their games, with the rest of the pool to play their last round in April.
Final group games to be played on the weekend of April 8/910:
Pool A: Biarritz vs Toulon; Newcastle Falcons vs Zebre
Pool B: Benetton vs Perpignan; Dragons vs Gloucester
Pool C: Edinburgh vs Pau; Brive vs Saracens
Worcester News' Sports Editor Marcello Cossali-Francis had a look at that final round and predicted the outcomes to see what the final standings could look like.
Pool A final round prediction: Warriors fans will be hoping that Biarritz get nothing from their game with Toulon so let's say for that reason that Toulon win comfortably and in the other game you would back Newcastle to win handsomely at home to Zebre so a final table would look something a little like this.
1. Toulon (20 points), 2. Newcastle (14 points), 3. Warriors (9 points), 4. Biarritz (8 points), 5. Zebre (0 points)
Pool B final round prediction: Benetton at home would fancy their chances of beating the French side Perpignan especially given that French clubs do not tend to travel too well and they were pumped by Gloucester last weekend by 68-19 and you would also struggle to see anything but a Gloucester win in the final game at Newport. Lyon have already won the group.
1. Lyon (18 points), 2. Gloucester (16 points), 3. Benetton (8 points), 4. Perpignan (5 points), 5. Dragons (2 points)
Pool C final round prediction: These look pretty self explanatory and you would say that both Edinburgh and Saracens will rack up big wins against the two French sides. London Irish finished their campaign at the weekend with defeat to Saracens, who got a try bonus point.
1. Edinburgh (15 points), 2. London Irish (12 points), 3. Saracens (11 points), 4. Brive (6 points), 5. Pau (5 points)
Having done that, this is how we see the line-up for the round of 16 (Challenge Cup sides with home advantage):
- Toulon vs Biarritz
- Lyon vs Benetton
- Edinburgh vs Bath
- Gloucester vs Northampton Saints
- Worcester vs Cardiff
- Saracens vs Wasps
- London Irish vs Glasgow
- Newcastle Falcons vs Castres
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