The Highlanders will be tough to beat at home in the opening week of the playoffs © Getty Images

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The Super Rugby regular season is done for another year, and with it, the last of the three-conference, 15-team format, too. From 2016, we'll head to a two-group, four-conference set-up that come finals time, is only going to create more debate again.

Regardless, the finals are upon us, and it all starts getting very serious from here on. The Hurricanes and Waratahs have earned the weekend off, and four teams are left to battle it out to see who plays them in the semi-finals.

Here were a few things to stick out from the last round of the season.

Stoooopid conference system ...

As Sam Bruce and I touched on in the Scrum5 podcast this week, it's probably not a good time to sing the virtues of the conference system to New Zealand rugby fans at the moment. Especially Crusaders fans.

We've had instances of conference winners finishing with fewer points than teams in the wildcard spots before: the Reds in 2012 finished on top of the Australian conference with fewer points than all three wildcard teams, and the Brumbies in 2013 finished third by virtue of topping the conference despite an inferior record to the fourth-placed Crusaders.

But never before has the conference system thrown up a variable like this season, in which the third-placed Stormers finished with a worse record than not just all three wildcard teams, but the seventh-placed Crusaders too.

There are a few grievances being aired around the Highlanders, too, that despite having the second-best record overall, they're shunted to fourth and are in knockout mode when perhaps they should be enjoying a week off. You certainly can't argue with the maths element of this argument, but the reality is that the Highlanders' situation is no different to other examples of the past under this format. It is what it is.

So on with the rugby...

Why I bloody love the Highlanders

Also in this week's podcast, Sam Bruce thought he was coming out on top by picking the Cape Town game to cover in person, as we joked about taking advantage of Editor Andy Withers' unguarded travel budget. But the reality is that I would've picked the Dunedin game anyway. The Highlanders-Chiefs game shapes as a beauty and I would happily watch them for one simple reason: I just bloody love them!

In fact, I dare anyone to watch the Highlanders and derive no enjoyment from the experience. It won't happen; they're impossible not to love. I love that they play the game with a smile on their face.

Take Ben Smith's try right at the end of the Blues game on Friday. Though the Highlanders were pressing the Blues line, there's not a lot on. So Lima Sopoaga lobs up a little bomb kick about as speculative as the first attempts at finding gold, Patrick Osborne goes up high in the corner, bats it back to Ben Smith who crashes over to score.

And everyone gets up laughing! It looked like one of those things they try at the end of training but never works, and the first time they use it in a game, it's perfect.

I love that Dan Pryor, a guy who apart from being tall looks nothing like a loose forward, can run around at No.8 with freedom, and some kind of wonderful hybrid version of Scott Higginbotham's running, Kieran Read's link game, and Warren Whiteley's defence. And he's a mongrel over the ball, too. The Highlanders list him as weighing 103kg, but to look at him, you have to wonder if a friendly teammate mightn't have snuck a couple of toes on the scales at the weigh-in.

I love Elliot Dixon's head tape. And I love that Elliot Dixon loves that I love his head tape even more!

@BMcSport @Highlanders thanks for the love of my head band alot goes into it . Time and effort . Glad it's finally paying off :)

— Elliot Wikaira Dixon (@MaoriGC) June 12, 2015

I love the Highlanders TV YouTube clips. If you don't want to lose an hour among some quality stuff, then do yourself a massive favour and clear 6:19 from your day just for this latest instalment.

Most of all, I just love the way they play the game. They've got the right mix of enthusiasm and pragmatism and a decent set piece and maybe the best counter-attack in the comp. I'm telling you, it's impossible not to love them! And they're more than capable of going all the way in 2015, too.

So who has the finals momentum?

Three of the six finalists lost their final game of the year, and it just makes you wonder how they'll fare in the playoffs themselves. The Chiefs must spring back to life to topple the Highlanders in Dunedin, which my point above notwithstanding, will be a tough task.

And I suppose you can say it's fortunate, but the Stormers and Brumbies can't both lose in Cape Town. The Brumbies will have to overcome the travel factor first and foremost, but then they're also sweating on the fitness of David Pocock, who must now go through the Return To Play Protocols after failing a concussion test before half-time on Saturday. But the Stormers have already ruled Duane Vermeulen out, too, and we saw it on the weekend plus a few times already this year, that the Stormers with Vermeulen are a different prospect than without him.

Duane Vermeulen has been ruled out of the Stormers' qualifying final © Getty Images

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The Highlanders certainly have the momentum, and I think they're a big chance from here. They certainly have the game to topple the Hurricanes in Wellington, and they've already beaten the Waratahs in this season.

The Hurricanes and Waratahs will be the favourites though, and both will put the feet up this weekend coming hoping that the four other teams belt seven shades out of each other in the qualifiers. The Hurricanes have been the dominant team of 2015, and in much the same way the 'Tahs were clearly the best side in 2014, it would feel wrong if the 'Canes couldn't break their title drought.

But the Waratahs' title defence has opened up beautifully. They can host another semi-final, and it's not at all implausible that they can't host another final, too. And all this despite not really playing their best rugby this season at all.