The 2017–18 PRO14 (also known as the ''Guinness PRO14'' for sponsorship reasons) was the seventeenth season of the professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

competition originally known as the Celtic League. It is the first season to be referred to as the ''

Guinness Guinness () is a stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at Guinness Brewery, St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in the 18th century. It is now owned by the British-based Multinational corporation, multinational alcoholic bever ...

PRO14 Championship'', with the addition of two South African teams. Fourteen teams competed in this season — four Irish teams:

Connacht Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...

Leinster Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland. The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...

Munster Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...

and

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

; two Italian teams: Benetton and

Zebre Zebre Parma (, meaning " Zebras") are an Italian professional rugby union team competing in the United Rugby Championship and EPCR competitions from the 2012–13 season. They are based in Parma (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. They are operated by t ...

; two Scottish teams:

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and

Glasgow Warriors The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...

; two South African teams:

Cheetahs The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat and the fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, with a short snout and blac ...

and the

Southern Kings The Southern Kings were a South African professional rugby union team that competed in Super Rugby and Pro14. They were based in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province and played their home matches at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. They w ...

; and four Welsh teams:

Cardiff Blues Cardiff Rugby () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams. Based in Cardiff, the team play at Cardiff Arms Park. Originally formed in 1876, from 2003 to 2021 the first team was known as the Cardiff Blues before rebranding back ...

Dragons A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...

, Ospreys and

Scarlets The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...

. Scarlets came into the new season as defending champions, and for the second season reached the PRO14 final.

, however, won the final at the

Aviva Stadium Aviva Stadium, also known as Lansdowne Road (, ) or Dublin Arena (during UEFA competitions), is a List of stadiums in Ireland by capacity, sports stadium located in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with a capacity for 51,711 spectators ...

to take their fifth title in the competition's various iterations, and seal a domestic league and European Cup double, only the sixth team to do so, and the first from the PRO14 Championship.

Teams

Changes for the season

# On 18 May 2017, European Professional Club Rugby announced key changes to how PRO14 teams qualify for the European Rugby Champions Cup. At the end of the 2017–18 season, the top seven eligible teams qualified for the 2018–19 European Rugby Champions Cup, regardless of their country of origin (previously the seven qualifiers included at least one team from each of Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales). The two South African teams are not eligible to qualify for EPCR tournaments. # On 30 June 2017,

BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcasting, public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, ...

reported that the two South African teams being dropped from the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

competition, the

and

, would be immediately added to Pro12. The two teams, the

South African Rugby Union The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board ...

and Pro12 organiser Celtic Rugby Limited refused to comment on the report. However, their involvement was confirmed on 1 August 2017.

Format

; League Stage The fourteen teams will be split into two conferences of seven teams, with each conference featuring two teams from Ireland and Wales plus one team from Italy, Scotland and South Africa. The regular season will be made up of 21 rounds – *12 home and away games against each team in their own conference *7 games, either home or away, against the teams in the other conference *2 additional regional derbies – **Each Irish team will play the two Irish teams in the other conference, one at home and one away **Each Welsh team will play the two Welsh teams in the other conference, one at home and one away **Each Italian team will play the Italian team in the other conference twice, home and away **Each Scottish team will play the Scottish team in the other conference twice, home and away **Each South African team will play the South African team in the other conference twice, home and away ; League Play-Offs The first-placed team in each conference are given a bye to the semi-finals with the second and third placed teams in each conference meeting in two quarter-finals for the two remaining semi-final places. This is the first year in which there will be two quarter-finals prior to the semi-finals and final. ; Qualification For Champions Cup The South African teams cannot compete in the European Rugby Champions Cup. The top three eligible teams in each conference automatically qualified for following year's Champions Cup. The fourth ranked eligible team in each conference met in a play-off match with the winner taking the seventh Champions Cup place.

Team changes

Ireland

In February 2017,

announced that New Zealander Kieran Keane, Chiefs attack coach, had signed a three-year contract to become their new head coach, replacing

Pat Lam Patrick Richard Lam (born 29 September 1968) is a rugby union coach and former player. He is currently Director of Rugby at Bristol Bears in England's Premiership Rugby. Born in New Zealand, he represented New Zealand in schools and under-21 ...

who moved to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. Following Keane's appointment, existing forwards coach Jimmy Duffy signed an extension to his deal and academy manager

Nigel Carolan Nigel Carolan (born 27 December 1974) is a rugby union coach from Ireland. He is currently the Assistant coach to Scottish United Rugby Championship side Glasgow Warriors. He was previously a Backs coach at Connacht. Before becoming a coach Caro ...

was promoted to backs coach, leaving his post as head coach of the Ireland under-20s to take the role. In May 2017, Peter Wilkins joined from

as defence coach. In March 2017,

confirmed that all four of their current coaches had extended their terms with the province. Head coach Leo Cullen, senior coach Stuart Lancaster, backs coach Girvan Dempsey and scrum coach John Fogarty signed contracts to take them through to summer 2019. In June 2017, after many weeks of media speculation,

confirmed that director of rugby Rassie Erasmus and defence coach

Jacques Nienaber Jacques Nienaber (born 16 October 1972) is a South African rugby union coach who is currently the senior coach at Leinster. He led South Africa to their 4th World Cup title in 2023. Early life Nienaber was born in 1972 in Kimberley, Cape Provinc ...

would leave their roles with the province and return to South Africa on 31 December 2017, to take over the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

. In the same month coaches Jerry Flannery and Felix Jones extended their contracts with the province by two years, expanding their roles to forwards coach, and backline and attack coach respectively. Team manager Niall O'Donovan also signed a new three-year contract. Johann van Graan, the Springboks forwards coach, was named as the new head coach in September 2017, and started his appointment ahead of Round 9 of the tournament. In February 2017,

announced that New Zealander Jono Gibbes, former Leinster and then- Clermont Auvergne forwards coach, would be joining the province as their new head coach on a two-year contract working under existing director of rugby

Les Kiss Les Kiss (born 9 December 1964) is an Australian former rugby league coach and player and professional rugby union coach who is the current head coach of Super Rugby Pacific side the Queensland Reds. Prior to this he was head coach of London I ...

. It was also announced that former

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

and Lions scrum-half

Dwayne Peel Dwayne John Peel (born 31 August 1981) is a Welsh rugby union coach and former player. He was the most capped scrum-half for the Wales national rugby union team with 76 caps, until his record was surpassed by Mike Phillips on 16 March 2013. Yo ...

had joined as an assistant coach. In June 2017, Ulster added former Leinster hooker and

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

coach Aaron Dundon as their Scrum Coach. Kiss left his post on 31 January 2018 by mutual agreement with the province, with Gibbes assuming all coaching responsibility of the team for the remainder of the season.

Italy

Ahead of the new season, Benetton Treviso changed their name, becoming just Benetton. In July 2017, New Zealand-born flanker Dean Budd was named as team captain replacing Alessandro Zanni. In July 2017,

announced that a new company had been formed, named ''Zebre Rugby Club'', to take the second Italian place in the Pro14 ahead of the 2017–18 season. This followed an earlier announcement from the

Italian Rugby Federation The Italian Rugby Federation () or FIR is the governing body for the sport of rugby union in Italy. The FIR has one seat on the 28-member World Rugby Council, the governing body of World Rugby. (All other members of the Six Nations have two seats ...

that Zebre intended to withdraw from the league due to major financial complications. However, with the formation of the new company, the club will now remain in

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

. Former

and

coach Michael Bradley was appointed as Zebre's new head coach. In addition to the change of coach, Zebre saw a change to the captaincy with Tommaso Castello serving as co-captain with the previous season's skipper George Biagi.

Scotland

In February 2017,

announced that former

Leicester Tigers Leicester Tigers (officially Leicester Football Club) are a professional rugby union club based in Leicester, England. They play in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby. The club was founded in 1880 and since 1892 plays its home ...

coach Richard Cockerill would be taking over as their new director of rugby from the start of the season. Then acting head coach Duncan Hodge returned to his usual role of Backs Coach. Magnus Bradbury was named as the new team captain at the start of the season, replacing the joint captains from the previous season,

Grant Gilchrist Grant Stuart Gilchrist (born 9 August 1990) is a Scottish professional rugby union player who plays as a Lock (rugby union), lock for United Rugby Championship club Edinburgh Rugby, Edinburgh and the Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland ...

and Stuart McInally. Bradbury was stripped of his captaincy in October 2017 due to off-field discipline issues, and replaced in the role by Fraser McKenzie. In August 2016,

announced that

Dave Rennie Dave Rennie (born 22 November 1963) is a New Zealand and Cook Islands professional rugby union coach and former player. He will take over the Kobe Steelers as head coach for the 2023–24 season. He previously was the head coach of the Austral ...

, then coach of

side Chiefs, would replace Gregor Townsend as head coach from the beginning of the 2017–18 season. This followed the news that Townsend was leaving the club to become the Scottish national team's new head coach. Scottish international Ryan Wilson was announced as the side's new captain in August 2017, replacing Jonny Gray and Henry Pyrgos.

South Africa

On 1 August 2017, it was announced that the

and the

would join the Pro12, forming the Pro14. They join following their removal from the Southern Hemisphere

competition. Cheetahs' coaching structure was altered following the move north, with Rory Duncan becoming the team's head coach and Franco Smith taking on the role of director of rugby. During the

2017 Super Rugby season The 2017 Super Rugby season was the 22nd season of Super Rugby, an annual rugby union competition organised by SANZAAR between teams from Argentina, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa. It was the second season featuring an expanded ...

the roles had been reversed. The move will see Duncan take charge of the first team, with Smith focusing on development of junior players and coaches, which will allow him to remain involved with

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

at international level. The Cheetahs are captained by

Niell Jordaan Daniel Niell Jordaan (born 13 January 1992) is a South African professional rugby union player for in the Currie Cup and the Rugby Challenge. His regular position is number eight. Career Schools rugby Jordaan earned a provincial call-up a ...

. Southern Kings preparation for the season was disrupted by the loss of a number of players prior to the confirmation of the side's admission to the competition. Among the players lost was regular captain Lionel Cronje. To fill out the squad, a number of players were signed on loan deals from South African Super Rugby sides. On 28 August, head coach Deon Davids appointed hooker Mike Willemse as the team's captain for their first ever tour in the competition.

Wales

In August 2017,

added former players Nicky Robinson and Richie Rees to their backroom staff. They join as kicking coach and backs coach respectively. On 20 June 2017, it was announced that, following a vote in March 2017 to allow the takeover of the club and Rodney Parade by the

Welsh Rugby Union The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU; ) is the governing body of rugby union in the country of Wales, recognised by the sport's international governing body, World Rugby. The WRU is responsible for the running of rugby in Wales, overseeing 320 member clu ...

, Newport Gwent Dragons would be dropping "Newport Gwent" from its name and would be known simply as

with immediate effect. A new crest was also unveiled. This followed the replacement of Kingsley Jones as head coach with Bernard Jackman earlier in the month. In August 2017, South African Hendré Marnitz, then head coach of

Currie Cup The Currie Cup () is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, four South African franc ...

side Blue Bulls, was confirmed as the Dragons' defence coach for the upcoming season. In the same month, Barry Maddocks was appointed as the Dragons' skills coach. Ospreys came into the season with Steve Tandy as head coach. Tandy was sacked in January 2018, following a poor run of results in the league and in Europe. The team's forwards coach, former Ulster and Ireland player Allen Clarke, was named as his replacement on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. Champions

came into the season largely unchanged. Their most significant loss was and Lions fullback Liam Williams, who joined

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century History of Germany, German woodcut depicting Saracens ''Saracen'' ( ) was a term used both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings between the 5th and 15th centuries to ...

in the Premiership. Fellow Lion,

Leigh Halfpenny Stephen Leigh Halfpenny (born 22 December 1988) is a Welsh rugby union player who plays as a fullback (rugby union), fullback or wing (rugby union), wing for Harlequin F.C., Harlequins in the Premiership Rugby, English Premiership. Halfpenny is ...

was signed from

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

as a replacement.

Table

Match summary

Conference stage

All times are local.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

1872 Cup 1st round

Round 12

1872 Cup 2nd round

Round 13

South African derbies

These are round 11 and round 12 matches which are scheduled after the normal round dates.

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

All games scheduled to be held in the United Kingdom and Italy were postponed over 28 February and 1 March due to a cold weather wave resulting in sub-zero temperatures, and potential inability for air travel. The Scarlets–Leinster match was moved to the following weekend, being played on 9 March, whilst the Edinburgh–Munster and Cardiff Blues–Benetton games were rescheduled to 16 March. The Ulster–Glasgow Warriors game was moved to the weekend of 20/21/22 April, whilst the Zebre–Ospreys game was postponed to a yet to be determined date.

Round 17 rescheduled matches

* Match rescheduled from 3 March 2018. * Match rescheduled from 2 March 2018. * Match rescheduled from 2 March 2018.

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 17 rescheduled match

* Match rescheduled from 3 March 2018. * Match rescheduled from 2 March 2018.

Round 21

Judgement Day

1872 Cup 3rd round

Play-offs

The top side from each of the two conferences are given a bye to the semi-finals and have home advantage. Teams placed second and third in opposite conferences play each other to determine the other two semi-finalists with the team ranked second having home advantage. The play-offs are scheduled in the four weeks after the regular season has been completed.

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Play-off for the 7th Champions Cup place

The South African teams cannot compete in the European Rugby Champions Cup. The top three eligible teams in each conference automatically qualify for following year's Champions Cup. The fourth ranked eligible team in each conference meet in a play-off match with the winner taking the seventh Champions Cup place.

had home advantage against Ospreys by virtue of finishing with the greater number of points accumulated during the PRO14 regular league (62, as opposed to Ospreys’ 44). The match was played on Sunday 20 May, at the Kingspan Stadium.

Referees

On 30 August, a 13-man referee elite squad was announced by Elite Referee Manager Greg Garner (number of matches refereed): * Mike Adamson ( SRU) – (8) * Stuart Berry ( SARU) – (0) * Andrew Brace ( IRFU) – (23) * George Clancy ( IRFU) – (89) * Ian Davies ( WRU) – (64) * Quinton Immelman ( SARU) – (0) * Dan Jones ( WRU) – (8) * John Lacey ( IRFU) – (63) * Marius Mitrea (

FIR Firs are evergreen coniferous trees belonging to the genus ''Abies'' () in the family Pinaceae. There are approximately 48–65 extant species, found on mountains throughout much of North and Central America, Eurasia, and North Africa. The genu ...

) – (68) *

Frank Murphy William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer, and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving ...

( IRFU) – (5) * Nigel Owens ( WRU) – (152) * Ben Whitehouse ( WRU) – (33) * David Wilkinson ( IRFU) – (51) Note: Additional referees are used throughout the season, selected from a select development squad.

Attendances by club

* Includes quarter-finals and semi-finals – the final is not included as it is held at a neutral venue. Due to the league structure of the Pro 14, some teams only played 10 league home games during the league stage, while others played 11. Does not include European Champions Cup play-off game.

End of Season Awards

PRO14 Dream Team

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under

World Rugby World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...

eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

Award winners

Leading scorers

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pro12 2017–18 in European rugby union leagues 2017-18 2017–18 in Irish rugby union 2017–18 in Italian rugby union 2017–18 in Scottish rugby union 2017–18 in Welsh rugby union 2017 in South African rugby union 2018 in South African rugby union