CONFIRMED: South African teams to join Pro12 this season

Celtic Rugby and the South African Rugby Union have today confirmed that the Toyota Cheetahs and the Southern Kings will join an expanded Guinness PRO14 tournament in time for the upcoming 2017/18 season.
A long-term strategic agreement has been signed by both parties which will allow the participation of two South African franchises in the renamed Guinness PRO14 Championship.
While all current home and away Derby games have been protected, the addition of the Cheetahs and the Kings will see the Championship introduce a new Conference format with seven teams in each but each of the 14 teams will only play 21 games compare to 22 last season.
There will be an equal number of teams from each union in both conferences but to maintain competitive balance the Conferences will be reset each season based upon rankings from the previous campaign.
The top three European clubs from each conference will qualify for the Champions Cup while the team with the highest points total outside of those six teams across both conferences will claim the final Champions Cup place.
Each team will be play 12 home and away games against teams in their conference, seven home or away games against teams from the other conference as well as an additional two rounds to ensure all derby fixtures are played home & away.
In order to provide travelling teams to South Africa with the best possible preparation, games will be fixed for Saturdays. This will allow visiting teams to have a seven-day turnaround leading into these fixtures including five ‘clean days' that do not involve any travel.
The fixture list will be confirmed next week after the Championship's broadcast partners have made their selections for live television broadcasts and the clubs have been consulted.
Conference A: Munster, Ospreys, Glasgow, Cardiff Blues, Connacht, Zebre, Cheetahs
Conference B: Scarlets, Leinster, Ulster, Edinburgh, Treviso, Dragons, Kings