After two weeks of Interpros there's no Irish derby this weekend in the BKT United Rugby Championship, but that won't take anything away from a couple of standout fixtures in Round 5 of the URC.
There's no mistaking the game of the weekend, as Munster welcome the Stormers to Thomond Park on Saturday evening for a repeat of last season's final.
That's one of three games between Irish provinces and the South African franchises, with Ulster kicking the weekend off when they welcome the Lions to Belfast on Friday night.
Connacht are the first of the provinces to head on their South African tour this season, and the first stop for Pete Wikins' side will be Durban, where they take on a Sharks team who are still winless after four games.
Leinster face Welsh opposition for the second week in a row, as they welcome the struggling Scarlets to the RDS on Saturday night.
ONLINE
We'll have live scoring, reports and reaction across the weekend.
TV
Sharks v Connacht will be live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Saturday, with coverage getting under way at 2.30pm.
TG4 will be showing live coverage of Ulster v Lions (Friday 7.35pm) Munster v Stormers (Saturday 5.15pm) and Leinster v Scarlets (Saturday 7.35pm).
All games are shown live on urc.tv.
RADIO
Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1 will have live commentary of Sharks v Connacht, as well as updates from Munster v Stormers.
WEATHER
It's likely to be around 8C on Friday night for Ulster v Lions, but some showers are expected in Belfast.
Things will be much different in Durban where Connacht face the Sharks, with temperatures around 25C for the 5pm local time kick-off.
In Limerick, it will be a mild 12C for Munster v Stormers, with a slight chance of rain according to forecasts.
Similar temperatures are expected in Dublin later in the evening, but it should be a dry night, albeit with some windy conditions.
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
Having given up a 17-point lead to lose to Connacht, Ulster bounced back in style with a comeback win against Munster last week, which leaves them with a healthy three wins from four to start the campaign.
Dan McFarland's side are always formidable in Belfast, with just one defeat in their last seven at home, while they were 26-10 winners when they last welcomed the Lions to Kingspan Stadium in 2021.
Ulster have actually had the measure of the South African sides in the last 18 months, winning their last five games against the southern hemisphere sides. They'll be favourites to make that six wins in a row, with the Lions only winning one of their eight meetings with Irish teams.
The province also look stronger on paper that they were in that impressive victory agaisnt Munster, welcoming Iain Henderson, Rob Herring, Alan O'Connor, Dave Ewers and James Hume back into their starting side.
It's also a big day for Marty Moore, with the experienced tighthead prop returning from more than 10 months out with a knee injury.
Ulster: Stewart Moore; Rob Baloucoune, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Jake Flannery, Nathan Doak; Andrew Warwick, Rob Herring, Scott Wilson; Alan O'Connor, Iain Henderson (capt); Dave Ewers, Reuben Crothers, David McCann.
Replacements: John Andrew, Eric O'Sullivan, Marty Moore, Harry Sheridan, Lorcan McLoughlin, John Cooney, Billy Burns, Mike Lowry.
Lions: Quan Horn; Richard Kriel, Henco van Wyk, Marius Louw (capt), Edwill van der Merwe; Sanele Nohamba, Morne van den Berg; Corne Fourie, PJ Botha, Asenathi Ntlabakanye; Ruben Schoeman, Willem Alberts; Hanru Sirgel, Emmanuel Tshituka, Francke Horn
Replacements: Jaco Visagie, JP Smith, Ruan Smith, Ruan Delport, Ruan Venter, JC Pretorius, Jordan Hendrikse, Rabz Mazwane
Referee: Andrea Piardi (FIR)
Connacht's impressive start to the season hit its first wobble last week as Pete Wilkins' side fell to a late defeat in Edinburgh, but if the province are to target a rare win in South Africa, they'll likely prioritise this game against the Sharks ahead of next week's trip to the Bulls.
The Sharks, who are coached by former Ireland scrum coach John Plumtree, have had a disastrous start to the season, losing all four games and picking up just one bonus-point, which leaves them bottom of the table.
They're a different beast at home, winning nine of their 12 games in Durban last season in all competitions. However, while they hammered Munster in last season's Champions Cup, they were held to a draw by the province in the regular season at home, while they also lost to Ulster.
It amounts to a poor record against the Irish sides, losing eight in a row to Irish teams in the URC since beating Leinster in 2021.
Connacht were actually the first Irish team to win in South Africa when they defeated the Lions in April 2022, but the province have lost each of their last four games down in the southern hemisphere.
Sharks: Aphelele Fassi; Werner Kok, Lukhanyo Am, Francois Venter (capt), Aphiwe Dyantyi; Curwin Bosch, Cameron Wright; Ntuthuko Mchunu, Dylan Richardson, Coenie Oosthuizen; Corne Rahl, Emile van Heerden; James Venter, Phepsi Buthelezi, Sikhumbuzo Notshe
Replacements: Daniel Jooste, Dian Bleuler, Hanro Jacobs, Jeandre Labuschagne, Tinotenda Mavesere, Zee Mkhabela, Boeta Chamberlain, Rohan Janse van Rensburg
Connacht: Tiernan O'Halloran; Byron Ralston, Tom Farrell, Cathal Forde, Andrew Smith; JJ Hanrahan, Colm Reilly; Denis Buckley, Tadhg McElroy, Finlay Bealham; Oisin Dowling, Joe Joyce; Cian Prendergast, Conor Oliver (capt), Sean O'Brien.
Replacements: Dave Heffernan, Peter Dooley, Dominic Robertson-McCoy, Darragh Murray, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Caolin Blade, David Hawkshaw, John Porch.
Referee: Craig Evans (WRU)
While Munster have won all three previous meetings of the sides, there's a fine cross-hemisphere rivalry brewing between the URC's first two champions.
The pair played out two pulsating games in South Africa late last season. In the first of those, Munster pulled off a major shock when they handed the then-defending champions a rare home defeat, and just over a month later they repeated the trick in Cape Town by defeating the Stormers in the URC Grand Final.
Munster's three wins against the Stormers has contributed to a pretty good record against the South African sides, with their only defeat in their last seven games against South African teams coming against the Sharks in the Champions Cup.
Graham Rowntree's side have stuttered their way through the first four rounds, with impressive home wins against the Dragons and Sharks punctuated by a draw away to Benetton and a defeat to Ulster last week.
The Stormers have also struggled for consistency in the early rounds. John Dobson's side began the campaign with wins against the Lions and Scarlets, but have lost both games of their European tour against Glasgow and Benetton. A defeat this week would be the first time they've lost three in a row since joining the URC.
Munster: Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Antoine Frisch, Alex Nankivell, Shay McCarthy; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Scott Buckley, John Ryan; Edwin Edogbo, Tadhg Beirne; Peter O'Mahony (capt), John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Chris Moore, Josh Wycherley, Stephen Archer, Tom Ahern, Jack O'Donoghue, Conor Murray, Rory Scannell, Alex Kendellen.
Stormers: Warrick Gelant; Ben Loader, Ruhan Nel, Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Leolin Zas; Jean-Luc du Plessis Paul de Wet; Sti Sithole, Joseph Dweba, Neethling Fouche (capt); Ruben van Heerden, Gary Porter; Willie Engelbrecht, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos
Replacements: Andre-Hugo Venter, Ali Vermaak, Brok Harris, Adre Smith, Keke Morabe, Herschel Jantjies, Clayton Blommetjies, Angelo Davids
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
Leinster have recovered well from their opening weekend defeat to Glasgow, picking up three bonus-point wins in a row to sit second in the table after four rounds.
Leo Cullen's side will also be expected to keep up that winning run when they host a struggling Scarlets at the RDS.
Dwayne Peel's side have lost three of their four games to start the season, and they've also won just once away from home in the Championship since April 2022.
The statistics all point to a Leinster win; Leinster have won four in a row against this weekend's opponents, while the Scarlets have lost their last eight against Irish provinces. The Welsh side have also won just twice before at the RDS, in 2007 and 2017.
Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Jordan Larmour, Garry Ringrose (co-capt), Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O'Brien; Sam Prendergast, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Thomas Clarkson; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Max Deegan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris.
Replacements: Dan Sheehan, Jack Boyle, Tadhg Furlong, Ross Molony, Scott Penny, Fintan Gunne, Ross Byrne, Ciarán Frawley
Scarlets: Tom Rogers; Tomi Lewis, Jonathan Davies (capt), Johnny Williams, Ryan Conbeer; Charlie Titcombe, Kieran Hardy; Wyn Jones, Shaun Evans, Harri O'Connor; Alex Craig, Jac Price; Ben Williams, Teddy Leatherbarrow, Carwyn Tuipulotu
Replacements: Ryan Elias, Steff Thomas, Sam Wainwright, Morgan Jones, Iwan Shenton, Archie Hughes, Ioan NIcholas, Scott Williams
Referee: Hollie Davidson (SRU)
