Shake-up.

The conferences for the 2019/20 & 2020/21 Guinness PRO14 seasons have been drawn based upon finishing positions resulting in six teams swapping conferences.

Using the conference tables completed after Round 21 of the 2018/19 Guinness PRO14 season, teams were ordered from one to 14 based upon their final points totals and then ranked within their union.

The criteria for placing teams in each conference relies on competitiveness and ensuring an equal spread of teams from each union are present in both conferences.

As a result, the Conferences for the next two seasons are as follows:

Conference A
Glasgow Warriors (SCO 1)
Leinster Rugby (IRE 2)
Ulster Rugby (IRE 3)
Ospreys Rugby (WAL 1)
Dragons Rugby (WAL 4)
Zebre Rugby Club (ITA 2)
Toyota Cheetahs (SA 1)

Conference B
Edinburgh Rugby (SCO 2)
Munster Rugby (IRE 1)
Connacht Rugby (IRE 4)
Cardiff Blues (WAL 2)
Scarlets (WAL 3)
Benetton Rugby (ITA 1)
Isuzu Southern Kings (SA 2)

How the Conferences were drawn.

First, all teams were placed into a consolidated table:

1 Glasgow Warriors (81 pts)
2 Munster Rugby (77)
3 Leinster Rugby (76)
4 Ulster Rugby (63)
5 Connacht Rugby (61)
6 Ospreys Rugby (58)
7 Benetton Rugby (57)
8 Cardiff Blues (54)
9 Scarlets (52)
10 Edinburgh Rugby (51)
11 Toyota Cheetahs (46)
12 Dragons Rugby (26)
13 Isuzu Southern Kings (22)
14 Zebre Rugby Club (19)

Next each team was slotted into their union ranking:
SCO 1: Glasgow Warriors (81)
SCO 2: Edinburgh Rugby (51)

ITA 1: Benetton Rugby (57)
ITA 2: Zebre Rugby Club (19)

SA 1: Toyota Cheetahs (46)
SA 2: Isuzu Southern Kings (22)

IRE 1: Munster Rugby (77)
IRE 2: Leinster Rugby (76)
IRE 3: Ulster Rugby (63)
IRE 4: Connacht Rugby (61)

WAL 1: Ospreys Rugby (58)
WAL 2: Cardiff Blues (54)
WAL 3: Scarlets (52)
WAL 4: Dragons (26)

As the team with the most points Glasgow Warriors were placed into Conference A to allow the population to follow the sequence below:

Conference A
Scotland 1 (Glasgow Warriors)
Ireland 2 (Leinster Rugby)
Ireland 3 (Ulster Rugby)
Wales 1 (Ospreys Rugby)
Wales 4 (Dragons Rugby)
Italy 2 (Zebre Rugby Club)
South Africa 1 (Toyota Cheetahs)

Conference B
Scotland 2 (Edinburgh Rugby)
Ireland 1 (Munster Rugby)
Ireland 4 (Connacht Rugby)
Wales 2 (Cardiff Blues)
Wales 3 (Scarlets)
Italy 1 (Benetton Rugby)
South Africa 2 (Isuzu Southern Kings)

This is sequencing is put in place to ensure each union is equally represented in each Conference which is a guiding principal of the format of the Guinness PRO14.