In Europe's top league, the RaboDirect PRO12, Ulster still had an outside chance of making the play-offs as they headed across the border to Munster, who themselves were trying to fend off Glasgow Warriors in order to avoid having to visit European champions Leinster in the play-off semi-finals.
Glasgow, meanwhile, had to beat Connacht to be sure of a top-four berth and a place in the play-offs while Scarlets were aiming, successfully as it turned out, to rattle in four tries in the Welsh derby with Cardiff Blues, to keep up the pressure on Warriors.
Even in Aviva Premiership in England, there was an array of possibilities at the top. Any slip-up by Harlequins on the final day might have dropped them from top spot to third, with the consequent loss of home advantage in the play-offs, rendering their fixture at Sale Sharks vital as, too, were those involving Leicester Tigers against Bath and Saracens against Exeter Chiefs, who could have sneaked into the play-offs if Northampton Saints slipped up at Worcester Warriors.
So where did the main correspondents of the "British national" media outlets head to? Pretty much to a man, they were to be found that afternoon watching the worst two teams in British elite rugby slugging it out.
The ghoulishness obsession with relegation from the Aviva Premiership resulted in them reporting that the beaten team had more to celebrate, since Wasps' defeat by a narrow-enough margin meant they avoided the drop.
There is something ghoulish about this obsession with relegation, prevalent in the more traditional elements of the English rugby media. It is, you may think, their problem, contributing as it does to the negativity which hinders what should, on playing numbers, be the dominant nation in world rugby.
However, it becomes everyone's problem when they try to use the problems they cause themselves to justify an attempt to sabotage world rugby's most vibrant competition by increasing the percentage of participants from their league.
To put that in perspective, it should be harder for teams in the bottom half of their domestic leagues to compete on the European stage. Yet, setting aside Celtic domination of the knockout stages of this season's Heineken Cup – even when the results of the Italian sides are included – the success rate of the entire 11-team Pro12 contingent in this season's tournament was 54%: 66 matches producing 34 wins and four draws. That compares with England's 50% (21 wins from 42 games) and France's meagre 42% (14 wins and two draws from 24 ties).
And spare us the piffle about the French not taking the tournament seriously; if that is so, then why would they want more places?
Equally, the English argument that their clubs have a much tougher season because they have relegation is drivel.
Celtic countries need take no more lectures from the apologists for a the Aviva Premiership, a competition that would be largely ignored if it was judged on merit rather than maintaining its profile because of the in-built bias of the supposed pan-British media outlets which are, BBC networks included, so devoted to English sport.
The Celts and Italians have come up with a competition that suits them, suits their steadily growing audiences and helps their competitiveness at international level. Of course, it would be harder to create a similar competition in England or, indeed, France, because of their size, but, if neither of those countries have the imagination to emulate an American-style conference system to accommodate the number of teams they want to involve in national competition that is their problem.
What we know, on the basis of this season's Heineken Cup – it featured one English quarter-finalist, eliminated at that stage in spite of having home advantage – is that the success of Europe's top tournament is no more dependent on English participation than would be football's Champions League.
Meanwhile, as interest in rugby grows in Italy, Spain and Portugal, not to mention Georgia and Romania, it is only a matter of time before the French come to realise that their main interest should be in encouraging rugby's growth across the main continental shelf rather than joining in the English whingeing about Celtic superiority.
And Another Thing
As we move into the 18th year of professional rugby, are there, at last, signs of a growing maturity within the Scottish game and a wider understanding of the responsibilities of being a professional?
Sean Lineen, the outgoing Glasgow Warriors heads coach, believes that is so but that it is down to old-fashioned values re-emerging. "I have never been a professional player but, sometimes, the amateur ethos of just loving the game is something you need, and these guys have it," he said.
Perversely, it was only once players started to be paid for their efforts that we heard less committed voices talking early in their careers about the importance of their personal "lifestyle", as opposed to the needs of team, country or the sport.
The task facing the senior players at Glasgow Warriors is to ensure that the culture generated by Lineen's love of the sport is maintained after his departure.
