Week three of the BKT United Rugby Championship and the season is beginning to take shape after two weekends that threw up some big scores and surprising results.
Three of the four provinces are away this weekend, with Munster the only Irish team at home. Graham Rowntree's side welcome the Ospreys to Cork, with a big performance needed after their shock defeat to Zebre last Saturday.
Connacht are the first of the provinces to play this weekend. Pete Wilkins’ side have a six-day turnaround from their nail-biting win against the Sharks, as they welcome Bundee Aki and Jack Carty into their side for a meeting with the Scarlets in Llanelli.
Ulster continue their South African tour versus the Bulls in Pretoria, while Leinster look to maintain their perfect start away to Benetton.
ONLINE
We'll have live updates, live scoring, reports and reaction from all four games on rte.ie/sport.
TV
You can watch live coverage of Benetton v Leinster (Saturday 5.15pm) and Munster v Ospreys (Saturday 7.35pm) on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Bulls v Ulster (Saturday 3pm) will be shown on Premier Sports, with Scarlets v Connacht (Friday 7.35pm) on TG4 and Premier Sports.
All games are also shown live on URC.tv.
WEATHER
Connacht and the Scarlets should have favourable conditions to work with in Llanelli on Friday night, with a dry evening forecast and temperatures of around 13C expected for kick-off, with light winds.
Ulster are set for another hot afternoon in South Africa when they face the Bulls on Saturday, with temperatures in Pretoria hitting 24C under blue skies.
It's also likely to be warm and sunny in Treviso where Leinster are taking on Benetton, with 16C and light winds by the game kicks off.
Munster and Ospreys will be dealing with challenging conditions in Cork on Saturday night, with a lot of rain forecast along with strong winds, and temperatures of 13C.
Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts
While Connacht were 29-23 winners on their last visit to Llanelli in February 2022, Parc y Scarlets has traditionally been a barren ground for the province, who had lost on their last 11 visits to the venue.
The sides have met twice since then in Galway, with Connacht coming out on top on each occasion, and Pete Wilkins' side have now won ten games in a row against Welsh opposition.
Last week’s dramatic win against the Sharks at the Dexcom Stadium saw Connacht end a run of four successive defeats dating back to last season, while the Scarlets are still looking for their first win of the campaign, with a draw and a defeat in their opening two matches.
Dwayne Peel’s side have lost their last 12 games against the provinces, with their most recent win against an Irish side coming against Connacht in March 2021.
Scarlets: Ioan Nicholas; Tom Rogers, Johnny Williams, Eddie James, Blair Murray; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies; Alec Hepburn, Ryan Elias, Henry Thomas; Sam Lousi, Max Douglas; Josh Macleod (capt), Dan Davis, Taine Plumtree.
Replacements: Marnus van der Merwe, Kemsley Mathias, Sam Wainwright, Alex Craig, Carwyn Tuipulotu, Efan Jones, Ioan Lloyd, Macs Page.
Connacht: Santiago Cordero; Mack Hansen, Cathal Forde, Bundee Aki, Piers O'Conor; Jack Carty, Ben Murphy; Denis Buckley, Dave Heffernan, Finlay Bealham; Niall Murray, David O’Connor; Josh Murphy, Conor Oliver, Cian Prendergast (capt).
Replacements: Dylan Tierney-Martin, Peter Dooley, Temi Lasisi, Oisin Dowling, Paul Boyle, Caolin Blade, David Hawkshaw, Shayne Bolton.
Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU)
Ulster complete their tour of South Africa on Saturday afternoon against a Bulls side who got their campaign off to a winning start last week against Edinburgh.
This will be the fourth meeting of Ulster and the Bulls, with each of the three previous games being won by the home side.
Ulster's 35-22 defeat to the Lions last week was their third in a row in South Africa, with their last win away to one of the South African sides coming against the Sharks in February 2023.
Richie Murphy’s side have only one win away from home in the URC since New Year’s Day, that victory coming against the Scarlets in Llanelli back in May.
The Bulls went more than a year without a home defeat at Loftus Versfeld until they were beaten by Munster in April, while Glasgow Warriors have also since claimed a win in Pretoria in Grand Final back in June.
Bulls: Willie le Roux; Sebastian de Klerk, Canan Moodie, David Kriel, Kurt-Lee Arendse; Boeta Chamberlain, Embrose Papier; Gerhard Steenekamp, Johan Grobbelaar, Wilco Louw; Cobus Wiese, Ruan Nortje (capt); Marco van Staden, Elrigh Louw, Cameron Hanekom
Replacements: Akker van der Merwe, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Francois Klopper, Sintu Manjezi, Celimpilo Gumede, Keagan Johannes, Stedman Gans, Aphiwe Dyantyi
Ulster: Mike Lowry; Werner Kok, Stewart Moore, Ben Carson, Jacob Stockdale; Aidan Morgan, Nathan Doak; Andrew Warwick, James McCormick, Corrie Barrett; Iain Henderson (capt), Charlie Irvine; James McNabney, Sean Reffell, David McCann
Replacements: Tadgh McElroy, Eric O'Sullivan, Tom O’Toole, Alan O’Connor, Nick Timoney, Dave Shanahan, James Humphreys, Ben Moxham
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
After maximum points in their opening two games, Leinster travel to Italy on Saturday evening, where they face a Benetton side who have started the season slowly.
The Italians reached the play-offs last season, and ran the Bulls close in their quarter-final in Pretoria, but Marco Bortolami's side are still looking for their first win of the new campaign after a draw against the Scarlets and a defeat away to Glasgow.
Benetton have turned Stadio Monigo into something of a fortress, with Glasgow the only team to pick up a win in Treviso since March 2023. Last season they held Munster to a draw, while Connacht were beaten twice on their trips to Italy.
Leinster are unbeaten in their last seven games with Benetton, a run which includes a 27-27 draw at the RDS in April 2019.
The province have only been beaten twice by the Italian side, with their only loss away to Benetton coming way back in 2010.
Benetton: Matt Gallagher; Ignacio Mendy, Tommaso Menoncello, Malakai Fekitoa, Paolo Odogwu; Jacob Umaga, Alessandro Garbisi; Mirco Spagnolo, Siua Maile, Simone Ferrari; Niccolò Cannone, Riccardo Favretto; Sebastian Negri, Manuel Zuliani, Michele Lamaro (capt)
Replacements: Marco Manfredi, Aminu Destiny, Enzo Avaca, Federico Ruzza, Giulio Marini, Lorenzo Cannone, Andy Uren, Leonardo Marin
Leinster: Hugo Keenan; Jimmy O'Brien, Garry Ringrose, Jamie Osborne, James Lowe; Ciarán Frawley, Jamison Gibson-Park; Andrew Porter, Rónan Kelleher, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, RG Snyman; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt)
Replacements: Lee Barron, Michael Milne, Thomas Clarkson, Ryan Baird, Brian Deeny, Fintan Gunne, Ross Byrne, Scott Penny
Referee: Craig Evans (WRU)
After a bonus-point win to start the season, Munster undid that good work in Italy last week when they fell to a shock 42-33 loss away to Zebre, their first defeat ever to the Parma side.
Defence has been the major weak point for the province this season, with their 75 points conceded in the opening two rounds being the highest in the competition by ten. By contrast, Munster were the stingiest defenders in the URC last season, giving up an average of just 17 points per game.
Graham Rowntree's side boast an impressive record in Cork, where they have now won nine times in a row, with Edinburgh the last team to win at Musgrave Park since November 2019.
Munster have lost just once to the Ospreys since 2016, and were victorious twice against the Welsh region last season, the second of which was in the URC quarter-final in June.
After losing their opening game of the season to the Dragons, the Ospreys picked up their first win of the campaign last week, defeating Stormers in Bridgend.
Munster: Mike Haley; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Bryan Fitzgerald, Shay McCarthy; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Oli Jager; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Peter O'Mahony, John Hodnett, Jack O'Donoghue
Replacements: Diarmuid Barron, John Ryan, Stephen Archer, Fineen Wycherley, Gavin Coombes, Conor Murray, Tony Butler, Jack Daly
Ospreys: Max Nagy; Iestyn Hopkins, Owen Watkin, Phil Cokanasiga, Ryan Conbeer; Dan Edwards, Reuben Morgan-Williams; Steffan Thomas, Dewi Lake, Tom Botha; Huw Sutton, Adam Beard; James Ratti, Jac Morgan (capt) Morgan Morris
Replacements: Sam Parry, Garyn Phillips, Ben Warren, Lewis Jones, Harri Deaves, Luke Davies, Jack Walsh, Keiran Williams
Referee: Mike Adamson (SRU)
Elsewhere, Cardiff will look to continue their good start to the season when they welcome defending champions Glasgow Warriors to the Arms Park.
On Saturday, Edinburgh go in search of their first win of the season, with the Scottish side away to the Lions in Johannesburg, the Sharks continue their northern hemisphere tour versus the Dragons, while Zebre will hope to follow up their big win over Munster when they host the Stormers.
