The top six teams will qualify to the finals, with their final positions in the overall log determining their seedings in the finals. The third-placed team (i.e. the conference winners with the worst overall record) will host the sixth-placed team in the qualifiers, while the fourth-placed team will host the fifth-placed team. The top two teams (i.e. the two conference winners with the best overall record) will qualify directly to the semi-finals, where they will have home advantage against the two qualifier winners, with the top team hosting the qualifier winner with the lower seeding and the second-placed team hosting the qualifier winner with the higher seeding. The two semi-final winners will progress to the final, with the team with the higher seeding having home advantage.

Points breakdown:
* 4 points for a win
* 2 points for a draw
* 1 bonus point for a loss by seven points or less
* 1 bonus point for scoring four or more tries in a match

Classification:
Teams standings are calculated as follows:
* Conference Leaders (i.e. conference leaders will always be ranked in the top three)
* Log points
* Number of games won
* Overall points difference
* Number of tries scored
* Overall try difference

As the Waratahs came second on the overall standings, they directly qualified for the semi-finals bypassing the first week of qualifying finals.

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Wikipedia