The home stretch of the BKT United Rugby Championship is coming into view with all four provinces having something to play for.
Table-toppers Leinster will bid to extend their handsome lead as they start a double-header in South Africa this weekend against the Bulls.
Munster are outside the top four and travel to second-place Glasgow hoping to move into a home quarter-final berth.
Connacht are at Ospreys where they aim to build on successive home victories and push into the top eight, while Ulster take on bottom of the table Dragons knowing any more slip-ups will severely dent their play-off chances.
Find out all you need to know about round 13 here.
TV
Glasgow v Munster (Friday, 7.35pm), Bulls v Leinster (Saturday, 3pm) and Ospreys v Connacht (Saturday 5.15pm) are live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
Premier Sports will show live coverage of Dragons v Ulster (Saturday, 5.15pm), while all games are shown live on URC.tv.
ONLINE
We'll have live scores updates, reports and reaction from from all four games.
WEATHER
Glasgow is set for partly cloudy conditions with a gentle breeze, temperatures around 10C for Munster's game. In Pretoria, Leinster face light rains showers and light winds in about 25C. Swansea and Newport are set for similar conditions but with a temperature of around 12C across southern Wales for the visits of Connacht and Ulster.
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Munster interim head coach Ian Costello described the first half of their 34-28 loss to Edinburgh in Cork last time out as the "worst" 40 minutes they have played.
The result left the team in fifth and six points behind fourth-place Sharks.
The last ten meetings between these two sides have been evenly split with five wins apiece, and Munster winning on two of their last three visits to Scotstoun.
However, their last meeting last season came in the semi-finals when Warriors pulled off a shock result before going on to win the tournament.
Franco Smith's team lost narrowly to Ospreys in round 12 and that ended a run of 14 successive home wins for Glasgow in all competitions.
Munster have made nine changes to their team with Jeremy Loughman playing his first game since October.
Gordon Wood, son of former Ireland captain Keith, is in line for his Munster debut if called upon from the replacements
Sione Vailanu returns from injury for his first appearance for Glasgow Warriors since December 2023.
Glasgow: Kyle Rowe; Sebastian Cancelliere, Ollie Smith, Stafford McDowall, Kyle Steyn (capt); Adam Hastings, George Horne; Jamie Bhatti, Johnny Matthews, Patrick Schickerling; Jare Oguntibeju, Alex Samuel; Euan Ferrie, Sione Vailanu, Jack Mann.
Replacements: Grant Stewart, Nathan McBeth, Sam Talakai, JP du Preez, Gregor Brown, Matt Fagerson, Ben Afshar, Duncan Weir.
Munster: Ben O'Connor; Seán O'Brien, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Andrew Smith; Tony Butler, Paddy Patterson; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron (capt), Stephen Archer; Fineen Wycherley, Tom Ahern; Alex Kendellen, John Hodnett. Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Danny Sheahan, Josh Wycherley, John Ryan, Brian Gleeson, Ruadhán Quinn, Ethan Coughlan, Gordon Wood, Rory Scannell.
Referee: Morne Ferreira (SARU)
Leo Cullen's side take on the Bulls, who beat them at this venue in last season's semi-final, minus most of their frontline Ireland players who are on a rest week after the Six Nation.
Leinster are 13 points clear at the top so will return to Ireland after this double-header - they play the Sharks next weekend - knowing they can't be overtaken and with room to manouvere.
Leinster's only victory on their last seven visits to South Africa was 39-36 against the Lions
in Johannesburg in April 2023.
The sides have met five times before with the Bulls having the edge by three wins to two.
Bulls have lost two of their last three URC matches, both at Loftus Versfeld, against the Sharks and the Stormers but Jake White's men have not lost successive home games since March 2023.
The South Africans have won their last three fixtures against Irish provinces.
Bulls: Willie le Roux; Sebastian de Klerk, David Kriel, Harold Vorster, Stravino Jacobs; Keagan Johannes, Embrose Papier; Alulutho Tshakweni, Akker van der Merwe, Wilco Louw; Ruan Vermaak, JF van Heerden; Marcell Coetzee (capt), Jannes Kirsten, Cameron Hanekom.
Replacements: Johan Grobbelaar, Jan-Hendrik Wessels, Mornay Smith, Reinhardt Ludwig, Marco van Staden, Nizaam Carr, Zak Burger, Devon Williams.
Leinster: Jimmy O'Brien; Tommy O'Brien, Hugh Cooney, Jordie Barrett, Andrew Osborne; Ross Byrne, Luke McGrath (capt); Jack Boyle, John McKee, Rabah Slimani; Diarmuid Mangan, RG Snyman; Max Deegan, Will Connors, James Culhane.
Replacements: Stephen Smyth, Ivan Soroka, Thomas Clarkson, Brian Deeny, Alex Soroka, Scott Penny, Fintan Gunne, Ciarán Frawley.
Referee: Ben Whitehouse (WRU)
Ulster boss Richie Murphy knows his side, sitting in 14th, have it all to do in order to make the top eight.
They lost twice to Italian opposition, home and away to Zebre and Benetton, before recording a much-needed win against Scarlets in the last round.
Ulster's only away win in any competition since last May was 17-7 at Connacht in round nine, while they have lost only two of their last 14 encounters with Welsh regions.
Filo Tiatia's side have just one win to their name in the URC this season, that coming in their round-one victory over Ospreys back in September. They lost 31-21 in Zebre last time out.
Dragons' most recent victory against an Irish province was beating Munster 23-17 in Newport in September 2022.
Dragons: Huw Anderson; Rio Dyer, Joe Westwood, Aneurin Owen (capt), Ashton Hewitt; Will Reed, Rhodri Williams; Rodrigo Martinez, Elliot Dee, Chris Coleman; Matthew Screech, George Nott; Shane Lewis-Hughes, Harrison Keddie, Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements: Brodie Coghlan, Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths, Paula Latu, Steve Cummins, Taine Basham, Dane Blacker, Josh Thomas, Jared Rosser.
Ulster: Stewart Moore; Michael Lowry, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; Callum Reid, Rob Herring, Tom O'Toole; Alan O’Connor (capt), Matthew Dalton; David McCann, Nick Timoney, James McNabney.
Replacements: John Andrew, Sam Crean, Scott Wilson, Kieran Treadwell, Reuben Crothers, John Cooney, Aidan Morgan, Zac Ward.
Referee: Griffin Colby (SARU)
Connacht are in Swansea to take on a resurgent Ospreys team who lost narrowly to Leinster in round 10 before edging Glasgow last time out.
The visitors are themselves coming off the back of two home wins, against Cardiff and Benetton, and could jump into the play-off places with a win.
They are currently in ninth, level on points with Lions.
Pete Wilkins' side have won just once on the road in the championship since last April: 24-23 at
Scarlets in round three, while they have won their last 13 fixtures against Welsh regions in the URC.
Connacht's only defeat in their last seven matches against Ospreys was 20-26 at Dexcom Stadium in January 2021.
Ospreys only victory over an Irish province since 2021 was beating Ulster 19-17 in Swansea
in February 2024.
Ospreys: Jack Walsh; Daniel Kasende, Evardi Boshoff, Keiran Williams, Keelan Giles; Dan Edwards, Kieran Hardy; Garyn Phillips, Sam Parry (capt), Tom Botha; James Ratti, Adam Beard; Morgan Morse, Justin Tipuric, Morgan Morris.
Replacements: George McGuigan, Steffan Thomas, Ben Warren, James Fender, Tristan Davies, Reuben Morgan-Williams, Phil Cokanasiga, Iestyn Hopkins.
Connacht: Piers O'Conor; Finn Treacy, Hugh Gavin, Cathal Forde, Shayne Bolton; Josh Ioane, Caolin Blade; Denis Buckley, Dave Heffernan, Jack Aungier; Darragh Murray, Joe Joyce (capt); Josh Murphy, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Paul Boyle.
Replacements: Dylan Tierney-Martin, Temi Lasisi, Sam Illo, Oisín Dowling, David O’Connor, Matthew Devine, JJ Hanrahan, Sean Jansen.
Referee: Aimee Barrett-Theron (SARU)
FULL LIST OF ROUND 13 FIXTURES, RESULTS AND STANDINGS
