2024–25 United Rugby Championship


The 2024–25 United Rugby Championship was the 24th season of the professional rugby union competition currently known as the United Rugby Championship, the highest level domestic rugby competition in South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy. This season was the fourth season under that name, and the fourth with the current collection of teams. It began on 20 September 2024 and ended on 14 June 2025.
Glasgow Warriors entered as the reigning champions, their second overall title, but were eliminated by Leinster in the semi-finals.
The first confirmed titles of the season were the four URC Regional Shields, which were won by Leinster, Cardiff, Sharks and Glasgow Warriors respectively. Leinster's win, their fourth, extended their record within the championship for Shield wins.
During the season, records were set for overall and average attendance, highest attendance for a single game and highest aggregate attendance across a round of competition. Over 1.8 million fans attended United Rugby Championship matches during the season.
For the first time since the current format was commenced in 2021–22, the top two seeds from the regular season standings, Leinster and Pretoria's Bulls reached the United Rugby Championship Final, on 14 June in Croke Park, Dublin. It was also the first final in the most recent format held outside South Africa.
Leinster defeated the Bulls 32–7 in the grand final to win their ninth overall title, and their first under the current competition format.
WWW stats.unitedrugby.com/mat...

Format

The 2024–25 season once again consisted of 21 rounds: 18 rounds of regular season play, followed by three rounds of play-offs. The competition ran from 20 September 2024 to 14 June 2025, with the regular season ending in mid May. The season also contained breaks for the 2024 end-of year internationals, the 2025 Men's Six Nations and the various matchdays of the 2024–25 European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. The season did not overlap with the summer internationals. Some South African teams played 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 were four regional pools: The Irish Shield pool, the Welsh Shield pool, the South African Shield pool and the shared Italian–Scottish Shield pool. The pools served two functions; they guaranteed a full slate of home-and-away derby matches for each team, and they awarded a minor Regional Shield trophy to the top team in each pool, which thereby functioned as a de facto national championship in three of the four pools, and a cross-border regional championship in the Scottish–Italian pool. The winner of each Shield was determined solely from the games played amongst the teams within their regional pool, mirroring the format of the old Interprovincial Championship in Ireland.
Teams therefore played six matches against their regional pool rivals, in a home and away double round-robin. The remaining twelve matches were made up of a full 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 played two of the teams in each of the other pools at home, and two away, with the matches of European teams away to South African teams usually held back to back as an eight-day 'mini-tour' to reduce travel. Each South Africa team played six away fixtures in Europe, again usually constructed around mini-tours of two or three matches.
In Scotland, the two pool games involving both Scottish sides, played back to back over the Christmas and New Year period, also decided the 1872 Cup, effectively a Scottish national professional championship. The two Italian sides have no individual trophy to play for.
For the Championship itself, there was one main league table. The top eight sides in that table at the end of the regular season qualified for the play-offs quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals and a grand final. The playoffs were 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 had home advantage. The Regional Shield pools had no direct link to the play-offs and by extension the Championship itself, and it was technically possible to win a Regional Shield but not contest the play-offs.

Administration of [Cardiff Rugby]

On 9 April 2025, the legal entity behind the Cardiff Rugby team was briefly placed into administration, after promised private funding did not materialise. The Welsh Rugby Union took over the running of the club on the same day, and bought the club's legal entity out of administration the day after, ensuring it continued as a going concern. Unlike the Gallagher Premiership, an administration event does not automatically lead to the punishment or expulsion of a club, and the Welsh union announced that they would seek new private owners for Cardiff forthwith. In 2017, the Welsh union had taken over the Dragons RFC team, but avoided administration, returning the club fully to private ownership six years later. The South African side Southern Kings had been the last team to fall into administration, entering voluntary administration in September 2020; the team left the league and was wound up shortly afterwards by choice of the South African Rugby Union.

Regional Shield competitions

Regional shield standings were based entirely on performances against other teams within the same conference. Therefore, only six games for each team counted towards the regional shields. Leinster Rugby became the first team to win their regional shield for the season, in their case the Irish Shield, their fourth from four since the format was introduced. On 9 March 2024, the Sharks confirmed their first South African Shield. On 19 April 2025, at the Judgement Day fixture, Cardiff Rugby sealed the Welsh Shield title with a 34–18 victory against Ospreys while Glasgow Warriors sealed their third Scottish-Italian Shield with a 14–6 victory over Zebre Parma.
''Final standings:''

URC league standings



European qualification

Priority order for 2025–26 European Rugby Champions Cup qualification was as follows:
As a result of the priority order, the top five teams in the regular season standings were guaranteed qualification to the Champions Cup. The remaining three places would have depended on the winners of the three main competitions involving URC teams, followed if necessary by the teams finishing sixth to eighth in the regular URC standings, but as no URC teams reached the final of either European competition, the qualifiers were simply the top 8 teams in the URC.
The eight remaining teams automatically qualify for the 2025–26 EPRC Challenge Cup.
Leinster became the first side to guarantee qualification to the Champions Cup when they guaranteed themselves a top five finish in Round 14; at that point, their lead over sixth placed Ulster, 25 points with 20 to play for, became unassailable. In Round 15, Glasgow also assured themselves of Champions Cup rugby in 2025–26. As Leinster were the only remaining URC team that could win the Champions Cup, and they were already assured qualification, the sixth-place finisher became assured of top-tier European rugby after the European Champions Cup quarter final. In Round 16, Bulls and Sharks, from South Africa, guaranteed themselves a top six finish, and Champions Cup rugby in 2025–26. With the elimination of the final URC team, Edinburgh, from the Challenge Cup, it was confirmed that all eight quarterfinalists for the United Rugby Championship will also qualify for the European Rugby Champions Cup in 2025–26. On 16 May, with five matches left in the final round of games, defeats for Cardiff and Benetton Rugby confirmed the final four European Rugby Champions Cup qualifiers for 2025–26 as Stormers, Munster, Edinburgh and Scarlets.
The EPCR Challenge Cup qualifiers for 2025–26 are therefore Cardiff, Ospreys, Dragons, Connacht, Ulster, Lions, Benetton and Zebre Parma.

Matches

The following are the match results for the 2024–25 United Rugby Championship regular season:
BENBULCARCONDRAEDIGLALEILIOMUNOSPSCASHASTOULSZEB
Benetton15-1720-1921-1833-75-3520-2038-1034-1911-10
Bulls45–2155-1522-1621-2031-1919-2916–1947-2163-24
Cardiff31-2336-5220–1726–2113–1319–2522–4221-1922-17
Connacht38–3014-2824-1931-721-3112-3324-3036-307-17
Dragons21-3122-2420-4519-2319-3823-2123-3130-3330-34
Edinburgh50-3327-838-510-731-3317-1838-747–1717-22
Glasgow Warriors42-1019-2622-1933-1442-028–2531–3217-1533-3
Leinster42–2420-1234-613-524-626-1236-1241-1772-5
Lions31-4222-3526-755-2129-2819-3238–1430–2335-22
Munster30–2113-1635-3328–347-2817-1023-029-838–20
Ospreys43-019-2919-3643-4057-2422-1319-2223-2237-24
Scarlets23-2215-2423-2432-1530-2435-2238-2217-2930-8
Sharks20-1728-247-1025–2241-24[|29–10]12-321-1535-34
Stormers54-532–3334–2434-2948-1217-2829-1034-1924-20
Ulster32-2720-1920-2719-2236-1230–2819-2238-3414-15
Zebre Parma12-2412-2231–2125-256-149-1042-3322-175-36

Colours: Green: home team win; Yellow: draw; Red: away team win; Blue: upcoming matches

Regular season

Round 8

Round 16

Knockout stage

The top eight teams in the regular season standings advanced to the knockout stage, a single-elimination tournament culminating in a Grand Final to crown the overall champion.
Teams were 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 were seeded so as not to meet until the Grand Final. The four home quarter finalists were confirmed as Leinster, Glasgow Warriors, Bulls and Sharks in Round 17 when Sharks defeated Ospreys 29–10. With a 76–5 victory over Zebre Parma, Leinster Rugby confirmed their number one seeding for a third year out of four, and home field advantage for the duration of their campaign in the play-offs.
Home field advantage for the semi-finals and Grand Final was awarded to the highest ranked team in each tie; the top two teams were therefore guaranteed home advantage until the final for as long as they remain in the tournament, and the top ranked team in the standings were awarded home advantage should they reach the Grand Final. In three seasons of the URC, no number one ranked team from the regular season had yet made the Grand Final, and of the three finals, two have been won by the visiting team. This season, however, for the first time since becoming the United Rugby Championship, the top seed, Leinster, succeeded in reaching the final where they would face the second seed, Bulls as the quarter- and semi-finals of the competition exactly followed the seeding. This also meant the first URC Grand Final to be held outside South Africa.

URC Grand Final

For the first time since it became the United Rugby Championship, the highest seeded team made the final, and faced the second seed, as all six knockout matches were won by the team with home advantage. Leinster hosted the Bulls in Croke Park, the first URC final to be held outside South Africa, and the first appearance of Leinster in a final since the format began. Bulls reached a record third final. Both teams needed their first URC title, although it would be Leinster's ninth total championship in all formats of the competition. and their twelfth play-off Grand Final. This final was the first between the two teams.
In their previous meeting this season, in Round 13, Bulls inflicted the first defeat of the season across all competitions on Leinster, 21–20 in Pretoria. In all previous URC meetings going back to 2021, Bulls lead Leinster four wins to two, including both previous play-off meetings.
In the final, Leinster proved much too strong for the Bulls in wet conditions, racing to a 19–0 lead at half time. A Bulls try early in the second half briefly raised hopes of a comeback, but Leinster saw out a dominant win with a further try and two penalties, confirming a 32–7 win for their ninth championship in total. The Bulls were consigned to a third URC final defeat in four years.

2024-25 URC Awards

In June 2025, the league announced its award winners for the year. The most prestigious award, the Player's Player of the Year, was won by RG Snyman of Leinster.

URC 'Elite XV' Team of the Year

The League announced its 'Elite XV' team of the year in June 2025. Munster and Bulls were the most represented teams, with three players each in the XV.
PositionNumberPlayerTeam
FB15|rugby union

Leading scorers

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 7 June 2025''

Attendances

Attendances by club

;Regular season
ClubHome
games		TotalAverageHighestLowest

Highest attendances

By Round
The all-time attendance record for a single round was broken in round 8, and then again in round 9 with a total attendance of 153,398 and 160,780 respectively.
; Individual matches
As in previous season, the largest attendances were broadly in 'derby' games which counted for the regional shields, the largest of which created a league record 80,468 for Leinster versus Munster at Croke Park, Dublin.

RankAttendanceDateHomeScoreAwayVenue
180,46812 October 2024Leinster28–12Munster|variant=rugby union