The second and third-placed league finishers – respective positions currently occupied by Wasps and Sharks – will play off later this month for the right to meet Gloucester.

A potentially crucial factor though, is that the team filling second spot will be guaranteed semi-final home advantage.

Tomorrow’s Heywood Road winners are guaranteed play-off status, while the losers would only miss out if they came unstuck in their final league game on Saturday week – Wasps host Harlequins, while Sharks visit Saracens – and fourth-placed Leicester harvested an unlikely maximum 10-point haul from appointments with London Irish and Gloucester.

Sharks will move back into second place if they triumph, but it promises to be a tough test, given that Parker Pen Challenge Cup finalists Wasps are on a 10-match unbeaten run in all competitions, stretching back to January 4.

“Games don’t come much bigger than this, and the boys are up for it after last week’s disappointing performance against Northampton,” Mallinder said.

“But we will have to be at our very best if we want to gain the upper hand in our bid to reach the play-off final.

“Wasps are playing really well at the moment and are enjoying a long, unbeaten run. They have a very powerful pack and some really exciting players outside, with Rob Howley and Alex King forming an experienced link at half-back.”

Prolific try-scorer Mark Cueto hopes to return for Sharks after missing the Northampton game because of gastric flu.

Prop Stuart Turner is ruled out because of a calf strain, but Mallinder is quietly confident that centre Dan Harris (shoulder injury) will make the starting XV.

Off the field, Sharks are due to announce later today a probable ground-sharing arrangement with Nationwide League club Stockport County next season.

It would enable Sharks to increase capacity from an existing 5,700 at Heywood Road to Edgeley Park’s 10,800. A lunchtime press conference has been called, fronted by Sharks supremo Brian Kennedy and Stockport chairman Brian Elwood.

While Sharks and Wasps have title play-offs on their collective agenda, bottom club London Irish continue an anxious relegation battle by visiting Leicester tomorrow.

Irish, currently one point adrift at the Premiership basement, need points from remaining games against Leicester and fellow strugglers Bristol Shoguns.

But there could yet be a reprieve for the relegation favourites, with Bristol and 10th-placed Bath set to announce merger plans in the near future.

A merger between Britain's fierce West Country rivals would undoubtedly mean no relegation from English rugby’s top flight, with National League One champions Rotherham filling the vacancy created by Bristol and Bath joining forces.

Irish though, cannot afford to count on a reprieve, and their Welford Road trip will not be made by latest injury victims Brendan Venter and Nick Burrows.

Their centre vacancies are filled by Rob Hoadley and Geoff Appleford, while top points scorer Barry Everitt has been omitted at fly-half in favour of the experienced Mark Mapletoft.

Harlequins can keep alive their hopes of Heineken Cup qualification if they beat Northampton in tonight’s Premiership clash at The Stoop.

Quins will secure a place in the Premiership wild-card play-offs by defeating Saints.

The new wild-card format will see four mid-table finishers – possibly Quins, Leeds, Newcastle and Saracens – contesting one Heineken Cup qualifying position for next season.

Home and away semi-final encounters between May 13 and 18 are then followed by a May 31 final, probably at Twickenham.

Quins currently occupy seventh place in the Premiership, and cannot finish any higher, so wild-card success provides their only possible Heineken Cup passport for next term.

Saints are without the services of three props – Tom Smith (broken toe) and Matt Stewart and Chris Budgen, who are both on duty for the Army in tomorrow’s clash against the Navy at Twickenham.

In addition, New Zealand back Bruce Reihana is also injured, but Paul Grayson, Matt Lord and Grant Seely have all passed fitness tests.

Bristol and Bath’s so-called relegation battle at Ashton Gate on Sunday – a new Premiership record attendance of 20,653 will be set – now has a slightly hollow feel to it, while elsewhere, Newcastle host Saracens and Gloucester visit Leeds.

Newcastle will be without their banned Scotland lock Stuart Grimes, and an injury-hit Gloucester squad has lost the services of hooker Chris Fortey, who was yesterday suspended for 12 weeks by a Rugby Football Union disciplinary panel.

England and Lions prop Phil Vickery though, is set to return after undergoing a back operation and being sidelined since mid-January.

The powerhouse prop is available again slightly ahead of schedule, and looks set to make England’s two-Test tour of Australia and New Zealand next month.