While the Titans sit with a home semi-final already secured, the other five teams in the Ram Slam have all to play for.

The Cobras are all but guaranteed a semi-final place, but would obviously like that to be at home.

To get that, they need to win against the Titans on Friday night or against the Warriors on Sunday, the last round of league matches.

Cobras coach Ashwell Prince is talking tough, saying the Titans ‘are not unbeatable’. But he admits that he does not really want to go to East London on Sunday for a must-win match.

‘We believe we can stop them,’ said Prince, who was boosted by the narrow win over the Knights on Wednesday.

‘It was also another close game which we managed to win. We spoke after the game and it was raised that we are still not firing on all cylinders. We are getting over the line, and showing that character is important, but we are leaving a good 20 to 30 percent in the bank there.’

‘Hopefully we can get the job done and we’ll peak at the right time of the season.’

Titans coach Mark Boucher oozes cold confidence:

‘The momentum is all with us,’ he said. ‘It’s more or less about how we prepare, and if we have done that properly and our intensity is good, I believe we can beat any side. Everyone knows that.

 ‘We’ve given ourselves a right to prepare for a semi-final and that’s exactly what we’re going to be doing. If there’s a chance to rest a couple of guys, we’ll do that so we don’t have to travel-play and then travel-play again. So it’s more about planning.’

For the rest, its all down to the wire, although the Warriors are on a knife-edge. They can get to 18 points by beating the Lions and the Cobras; but they would need the Lions, the Knights or the Dolphins to draw blanks.

Friday: Newlands: Cobras (18 pts)  vs Titans (32); Potchefstroom: Lions (14) vs Warriors (10); Bloemfontein: Knights (12)  vs Dolphins (14);
Sunday: East London: Warriors v Cobras; Durban: Dolphins v Titans; Johannesburg: Lions vs Knights

Photo: Muzi Ntombela/BackpagePix