WELLINGTON Andy Isabella Jersey , New Zealand (AP)venues decided in this weekend’s final regular-season round of Super Rugby which will highlight again the unfairness of the tournament’s conference system.Seven quarterfinalists have already been determined, four from New Zealand, two from South Africa and one from Australia.The defending champion and Christchurch-based Crusaders have sealed first place in the New Zealand conference and on the overall table, ensuring they will have home advantage as long as they stay alive in the playoffs.The New South Wales Waratahs have clinched first place in the Australian conference. First place remains up for grabs in an African conference in which the Johannesburg-based Lions, finalists in each of the last two years, are three points ahead of Argentina’s Jaguares.The Lions play the Pretoria-based Bulls and the Jaguares face the Durban-based Sharks in intra-conference matches in the last round.The African conference winner automatically qualifies for the playoffs and has home advantage until it faces a higher-ranked opponent.Of the five wild-card playoff spots available, three have been secured by New Zealand teams. The Highlanders are safe as are the Hurricanes and Chiefs, who meet Friday in the opening match of the last round.The Hurricanes have already beaten the Chiefs once during the regular season and the teams may meet again in next weekend’s quarterfinals, either in Hamilton or Wellington.The Hurricanes’ Chris Boyd is the latest coach to denounce a system that gives home advantage to conference winners even when they accrue fewer championship points than wild-card teams. The Hurricanes currently have 50 points, placing them well ahead of the Waratahs with 44 and Lions with 41.”The Crusaders are entrenched at No.1 and the Lions are going to finish top of their conference, the Waratahs are going to finish top of their conference and then the Chiefs and Hurricanes are going to finish fourth and fifth, or fifth and fourth,” Boyd told Fairfax Media.”The vagaries of the competition structure, given the pools, means that potentially both the Hurricanes and the Chiefs will finish higher, or thereabouts, than the Waratahs and Lions but don’t enjoy the privilege of getting the home playoff Zach Allen Jersey , so that’s an interesting feature of the competition.”The Dunedin-based Highlanders, with 40 points, have also secured a playoff berth ahead of their match on Saturday against the Melbourne Rebels. Their quarterfinal will be away from home but they will have to wait until the final round ends to learn whether it will be in Sydney, Johannesburg or Buenos Aires.Scrumhalf Aaron Smith said the Highlanders aren’t concerned about the quarterfinal venue.”Playoff rugby is what it’s all about,” he said. ”We’re at the crunch end of the season, we’ve set ourselves up to be in the playoffs no matter what, which is nice. It’s just a matter of where we’re flying to.”The Waratahs will end the regular season against the ACT Brumbies, who have a slight chance of making the playoffs.The Rebels or Sharks will likely take the final quarterfinal spot.A win would give the Waratahs a clean sweep of conference matches this season.”The reality is you want to win games at this time of year,” Waratahs assistant coach Chris Malone said. ”You want to go into a quarterfinal on the back of a win against a good, tough side and that’s really important for us.” NEW YORK (AP) — The chase to Atlanta is on.The regular season is over and there are 12 teams remaining in the run to the Super Bowl.And at the top of the AP Pro32 poll, the new year starts right where the previous one ended.The New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears, the top three seeds in the NFC, retained their top three spots in the final AP Pro32 poll of the season.New Orleans received 11 of the 12 first-place votes for 382 points in balloting Wednesday by media members who regularly cover the NFL. New Orleans will open the playoffs at home in the divisional round on Sunday, Jan 13.“The Saints lost in Week 1 and Week 17, both at home,” said Ira Kaufman of Fox 13 in Tampa Hakeem Butler Jersey , Florida. “In between, Drew Brees and company established themselves as the team to beat in the Super Bowl chase.”The Rams, who also finished 13-3 in the regular season, will start their postseason at the Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 12.The Bears will close wild-card weekend when they host the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles on Sunday.The next six spots in the poll are all taken by the AFC’s playoffs teams.The Chiefs, who have the AFC’s top seed, are No. 4. Kansas City, which received the remaining first-place vote — from John Czarnecki of Fox Sports — has won the AFC West for three consecutive seasons.Patrick Mahomes, who finished with 5,097 yards and 50 TD passes, will try to get Kansas City its first home playoff win since the 1993 season.“MVP front-runner Patrick Mahomes finished a brilliant first season as a starter with 50 touchdown passes,” said Newsday’s Bob Glauber. “With home-field advantage in the AFC playoffs, is a Super Bowl berth next?”The Los Angeles Chargers and New England Patriots finished in a tie at No. 5 in the poll.The Patriots, who won the AFC East for the 10th straight season and 15th time in the past 16 seasons, are the No. 2 seed in the AFC. They are trying to reach their ninth Super Bowl in the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era. They are also trying to become the first team since the 1990s Buffalo Bills to return to the Super Bowl after losing it the previous season, and the first since the 1992 Bills to make a third successive trip to the big game.The Chargers, despite finishing with the same record as the Chiefs at 12-4 Chris Lindstrom Jersey , lost the tiebreaker and are the No. 5 seed in the AFC. They will head to Baltimore to face the AFC North champion Ravens on Sunday. The Ravens are No. 9 in the poll.AFC South rivals Houston and Indianapolis are Nos. 7 and 8 in the poll. Those teams will open the postseason in Houston on Saturday when they meet for the third time after splitting their previous meetings.“Just wish they had another WR,” Czarnecki said of the Texans. Houston’s DeAndre Hopkins finished second in the NFL with 1,572 yards, but the depth took a hit when Demaryius Thomas was lost for the season with an Achilles tendon injury.Seattle and Dallas, who meet Saturday night in Texas, are 10th and 11th in the poll. The Seahawks and Cowboys both finished 10-6. They met in Seattle in Week 3, when the Seahawks won 24-13.The team that made the biggest climb from the first poll, which was released before the season started, was the Bears, who started out at No. 28 and finished at No. 3. And the team that had the biggest drop was the Jacksonville Jaguars, who began at No. 7 and ended up at No. 28.The Arizona Cardinals, who finished with the worst record in the NFL at 3-13 and have the No. 1 pick in April’s draft, were a unanimous choice for last place in the poll.