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.
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.

Format

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 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, the Welsh Shield pool, the South African Shield pool and the shared Italian-Scottish Shield pool. The pools serve two functions; they guarantee a full slate of home-and-away derby matches for each team, 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.
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.

Teams

TeamCountryCoach /
Director of Rugby		CaptainStadiumCapacityPosition last season

 Italysort|MacRae, Calum|

URC league standings



Regional shields

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.

European qualification

Priority order for 2026–27 European Rugby Champions Cup qualification is as follows:
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 EPRC Challenge Cup.

Match grid

The following are the fixtures and results for the 2025–26 United Rugby Championship regular season:
BENBULCARCONDRAEDIGLALEILIOMUNOSPSCASHASTOULSZEB
Benetton————14–1516–14RD 1641–15RD 15RD 1320-20—16–31—21–15
BullsRD 18RD 13————39–3133–43RD 1453–40—RD 12RD 8—RD 17
Cardiff17-8—14–822–1920–19—RD 1233–20—RD 1617–21—RD 18——
Connacht26–1527–28———RD 1223-34—RD 17RD 14RD 244–17—24–29—
DragonsRD 12RD 1517–2448–28RD 17—10–24——19–1926–517–17———
Edinburgh43–017-19—RD 18—3–211872_Cup|———19–17RD 12RD 16—RD 2RD 15
Glasgow WarriorsRD 1421–12RD 17—49–024–121872_Cup|RD 13—31-22——35–19——47–10
Leinster———52–17—28–20—RD 1714–31History of rugby union matches between Leinster and Munster|RD 18RD 1431–5—24–20History of rugby union matches between Leinster and Ulster|50–26
Lions—17-52—RD 16RD 14RD 13RD 15———29–18RD 8RD 1249–31—
Munster——23–2017–1522-2020–19—8–13History of rugby union matches between Leinster and Munster|RD 18———21–27RD 16RD 12
Ospreys——33–22—19–13—17–42—24-2410–26RD 17RD 15—RD 1224–0
Scarlets—RD 16RD 15—RD 18—23–0——21–3419–26—0–3427-22RD 13
SharksRD 1721–12RD 14—————22–23RD 1329–1936–2426–34RD 18
Stormers—13–8—RD 15RD 13RD 14RD 1635–034–27—26–10—19-30——
Ulster47–1328–721–14RD 1342–21—RD 18RD 15History of rugby union matches between Leinster and Ulster|—28–3———RD 16—
Zebre Parma23–37—14–2915–31RD 1631–2821-26—22–20————13–31RD 14

URC Shield fixtures in bold; Colours: Green: home team win; Yellow: draw; Red: away team win; Blue: upcoming matches

Regular season

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.

Round 8

Round 16

Knockout stage

Bracket

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.

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 5 January 2026''