Stephen Jones is not convinced by rugby's obsession with playoffs in his Rolling Maul blog for The Times.
"What is the best format to find the champion club of the Guinness Premiership, the Magners League and the Super 14?
"This is the time of year when I start to feel uneasy, the time when the best club of the season in England tends not to be crowned champion, the time when we question the system under which a team can finish top of the hardest, tightest, most competitive league of all (and all the stats prove it) and yet not win the title.
"The same can happen in the Super 14, when the lung-bursting campaign can throw up a team at the summit which is then usurped in the play-offs - although with such vast distances involved, naturally the concept of home field advantage does convey a terrific bonus. If there is one extra problem with the Super 14 - and this season it has often been superb when the tap-and-go rubbish subsides - it is the predictability of the closing stages. The Magners is the only league of the three which names the team first past the post as its winner. Munster are the best team in it. Why? Because the table cannot lie."
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