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2025–26 United Rugby Championship
2025–26 United Rugby Championship
The 2025–26 United Rugby Championship is the ongoing 25th season of the professional rugby union competition currently known as the United Rugby Championship, the highest level domestic club rugby competition in South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy. This season is also the fifth season under that name, and the fifth with the current collection of teams. It began on 26 September 2025 and will end in June 2026.
The 2025–26 United Rugby Championship is the ongoing 25th season of the professional rugby union competition currently known as the United Rugby Championship, the highest level domestic club rugby competition in South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy. This season is also the fifth season under that name, and the fifth with the current collection of teams. It began on 26 September 2025 and will end in June 2026.
Leinster entered the competition as the reigning champions, and holders of the URC Irish Shield and kicked off the competition with the first match away to Stormers. Glasgow Warriors, Sharks and Cardiff are defending the Scottish-Italian, South African and Welsh Shields respectively.
The 2025–26 season once again consists of 21 rounds: 18 rounds of regular season play, followed by three rounds of play-offs. The competition runs from September 2025 to June 2026, with the regular season ending in mid May. The season also contains breaks for the 2025 end-of year internationals, the 2026 Men's Six Nations (though some matches are played during 'fallow' weekends) and the various matchdays of the 2025–26 European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. The season does not overlap with the 2026 Nations Championship. Some South African teams will play derby matches throughout the Men's Six Nations window, as this is a competition in which the South Africa national team are not involved.
There are four regional pools: The Irish Shield pool (featuring the four Irish teams), the Welsh Shield pool (featuring the four Welsh teams), the South African Shield pool (featuring the four South African teams) and the shared Italian-Scottish Shield pool (featuring the two Italian and two Scottish sides). The pools serve two functions; they guarantee a full slate of home-and-away derby matches for each team (which are often the best attended and most remunerative fixtures for the clubs involved), and they award a minor Regional Shield trophy to the top team in each pool, which thereby functions as a de facto national professional championship in three of the four pools, and a cross-border regional championship in the Scottish–Italian pool. The winner of each Shield will be determined solely from the games played amongst the teams within their regional pool, mirroring the format of the old Interprovincial Championship in Ireland.
In Scotland, the two pool games involving both Scottish sides, played back to back over the Christmas and New Year period, also decide the 1872 Cup, effectively a Scottish national professional championship. The two Italian sides have no individual trophy to play for.
Teams therefore play six matches against their regional pool rivals, in a home and away double round-robin. The remaining 12 matches are made up by a single round robin of the remaining teams, consisting of an even number of six home and six away matches against all the sides from the other pools, with home advantage alternating each year. Generally each team will play two of the teams in each of the other pools at home, and two away, with the matches away to South African teams usually held back to back as a 'mini-tour' to reduce travel. The South African teams in turn have six European matches, which again are often arranged as a series of 'mini-tours' of two or three matches to reduce air travel.
For the United Rugby Championship itself, there is one main league table. The top eight sides in that table at the end of the regular season will qualify for the play-off quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals and a grand final. The playoffs are seeded, with the top four seeds having home advantage at the quarter-final stage. In the semi-finals and final, the better ranked club in each tie has home advantage, so the number one team in the ladder will retain home advantage for as long as it progresses in the competition, including the final (unlike the Prem Rugby competition in England where the final is held in the neutral Twickenham Stadium).
The Regional Shield pools have no direct link to the play-offs and by extension the Championship itself, or European qualification, and it is technically possible to win a Regional Shield but not contest the play-offs.
Team
Country
Coach /Director of Rugby
Captain
Stadium
Capacity
Position last season
Benetton
Italy
Calum MacRae
Michele Lamaro Sebastian Negri
Stadio Comunale di Monigo
5,000
10th
Bulls
South Africa
Johan Ackermann
Ruan Nortjé
Loftus Versfeld Stadium
51,762
Runner-up
Cardiff
Wales
Vacant
Liam Belcher
Cardiff Arms Park
12,125
9th
Connacht
Ireland
Stuart Lancaster
Cian Prendergast
The Sportsground
12,129
13th
Dragons
Wales
Filo Tiatia
Ben Carter Angus O'Brien
Rodney Parade
8,700
16th
Edinburgh
Scotland
Sean Everitt
Magnus Bradbury
Edinburgh Rugby StadiumMurrayfield Stadium
7,80067,144
Quarter-finalist
Glasgow Warriors
Scotland
Franco Smith
Kyle Steyn
Scotstoun StadiumHampden Park
7,35151,866
Semi-finalist
Leinster
Ireland
Leo Cullen
Caelan Doris
RDS ArenaAviva Stadium
18,50051,700
Champion (9th title)
Lions
South Africa
Ivan van Rooyen
Francke Horn
Ellis Park Stadium
62,567
11th
Munster
Ireland
Clayton McMillan
Tadhg Beirne
Thomond ParkMusgrave Park
25,6008,008
Quarter-finalist
Ospreys
Wales
Mark Jones
Jac Morgan
Brewery Field
8,000
12th
Scarlets
Wales
Dwayne Peel
Josh Macleod
Parc y Scarlets
14,870
Quarter-finalist
Sharks
South Africa
John Plumtree
Siya Kolisi
Kings Park Stadium
52,000
Semi-finalist
Stormers
South Africa
John Dobson
Salmaan Moerat
Cape Town StadiumDanie Craven Stadium
55,00016,000
Quarter-finalist
Ulster
Ireland
Richie Murphy
Iain Henderson
Ravenhill Stadium
18,196
14th
Zebre Parma
Italy
Massimo Brunello
Giovanni Licata
Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi
5,000
15th
Column 1
Column 2
Location of Irish, Scottish and Welsh teams:
UlsterConnachtLeinsterMunsterGlasgow WarriorsEdinburghScarletsOspreysDragonsCardiff2025–26 United Rugby Championship (the United Kingdom and Ireland)
Location of Italian teams:
BenettonZebre Parma2025–26 United Rugby Championship (Northern Italy)
Location of South African teams:
BullsLionsSharksStormers2025–26 United Rugby Championship (South Africa) |
Pos
Team
Pld
W
D
L
PF
PA
PD
TF
TA
TB
LB
Pts
Qualification
Glasgow Warriors
Stormers
Ulster
Leinster
Lions
Cardiff
Munster
Bulls
Connacht
Sharks
Ospreys
Benetton
Edinburgh
Scarlets
Dragons
Zebre Parma (E)
Regional shield standings will be based entirely on performances against other teams within the same conference. Therefore, only six games for each team will count towards the regional shields. Leinster, Glasgow Warriors, Sharks and Cardiff enter their respective Regional shields as reigning champions.
Glasgow Warriors became the first side to confirm their victory in their regional shield for the 2025-26 season following Round 10 and a 26-21 victory over Zebre Parma. It is Glasgow's fourth URC Scottish-Italian Shield success. In Round 12, Lions gained an unassailable lead to confirm their first URC South African Shield title.
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
Column 4
Column 5
Column 6
Column 7
Column 8
Column 9
Column 10
Column 11
Column 12
Column 13
Column 14
Column 15
2025–26 United Rugby Championship Regional Shield tables
2025–26 United Rugby Championship Regional Shield tables
2025–26 United Rugby Championship Regional Shield tables
Irish Shield
1
Leinster
5
4
0
1
137
99
+38
19
12
3
0
19
4
2
Ulster
4
2
0
2
96
77
+19
13
11
1
2
11
3
4
Munster
4
2
0
2
59
70
–11
8
9
1
1
10
7
3
Connacht
5
1
0
4
105
151
–46
14
20
1
2
7
9
Italian x Scottish Shield
1
Glasgow Warriors (S)
6
5
0
1
163
72
+91
25
9
4
1
25
1
2
Benetton
6
3
0
3
98
141
–43
10
19
1
1
14
12
3
Edinburgh
5
2
0
3
101
90
+11
15
13
2
1
11
13
4
Zebre Parma
5
1
0
4
100
159
–59
13
21
1
2
7
16
South African Shield
1
Lions (S)
6
4
0
2
168
173
–5
21
25
2
1
19
5
2
Sharks
6
3
0
3
143
153
–10
21
19
3
1
16
10
3
Stormers
6
3
0
3
132
144
–12
16
19
2
0
14
2
4
Bulls
6
2
0
4
165
138
+27
24
19
3
1
12
8
Welsh Shield
1
Ospreys
4
3
1
0
99
73
+26
15
11
2
0
16
11
2
Cardiff
4
2
0
2
85
90
-5
13
13
2
1
11
6
3
Dragons
5
1
1
3
94
89
+5
13
14
1
3
10
15
4
Scarlets
3
1
0
2
45
69
-24
7
10
0
1
5
14
If teams are level at any stage, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
number of matches won
the difference between points for and points against
the number of tries scored
the most points scored
the difference between tries for and tries against
the fewest red cards received
the fewest yellow cards received
Green background indicates teams currently leading the regional shield. Upon the conclusion of the regular season, these teams win their respective regional shields.
the 2025–26 European Rugby Champions Cup champions (if a URC team but not already qualified as above)
the 2025–26 EPCR Challenge Cup champions (if a URC team but not already qualified as above)
the next highest-ranked teams during regular season play not already qualified as above, until eight overall qualifiers have been selected.
As a result of the priority order, the top five teams in the regular season standings are guaranteed qualification to the Champions Cup, with the remaining three places dependant on cup results this season.
The eight remaining teams qualify for the 2026–27 EPCR Challenge Cup.
The following are the fixtures and results for the 2025–26 United Rugby Championship regular season:
BEN
BUL
CAR
CON
DRA
EDI
GLA
LEI
LIO
MUN
OSP
SCA
SHA
STO
ULS
ZEB
Benetton
Bulls
Cardiff
Connacht
Dragons
Edinburgh
Glasgow Warriors
Leinster
Lions
Munster
Ospreys
Scarlets
Sharks
Stormers
Ulster
Zebre Parma
URC Shield fixtures in bold; Colours: Green: home team win; Yellow: draw; Red: away team win; Blue: upcoming matches
The matches for the regular season were announced on 21 May 2025, the earliest fixture reveal in the competition's history. The first match was the visit of Leinster to South Africa to take on Stormers at Cape Town Stadium on Friday, 26 September 2025. (Stormers beat Leinster 35–0.)
The top eight teams in the regular season standings advance to the knockout stage, a single-elimination tournament culminating in a Grand Final to crown the overall champion.
Teams are seeded based on the regular season standings, with teams ranked 1–4 receiving home field advantage in the quarter-final, with 1 playing 8, 2 playing 7 etc. The top two teams in the standings are seeded so as not to meet until the Grand Final.
Home-field advantage for the semi-finals and Grand Final will be awarded to the highest-ranked team in each tie; the top two teams are therefore guaranteed home advantage until the final for as long as they remain in the tournament, and the top ranked team in the standings will be awarded home advantage should they reach the Grand Final.
Column 1
Column 2
Column 3
Column 4
Column 5
Column 6
Column 7
Column 8
Column 9
Column 10
Column 11
Column 12
Column 13
Column 14
Column 15
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
1
8
4
5
3
6
2
7
Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities. Includes post season points scored.
As of 23 March 2026
European club rugby
Major European leagues
2025-26 PREM Rugby, top level English rugby union competition
2025-26 Top 14, top level French rugby union competition
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