The new BKT United Rugby Championship gets under way this weekend, the fifth season of this iteration of the competition.
While Leinster lifted the trophy at Croke Park in June, the 2024/25 season was a challenging one for the Irish provinces; Munster and Connacht both had mid-season coaching changes, while Connacht and Ulster both missed out on the play-offs and Champions Cup qualification.
Clayton McMillan is at the helm at Munster this season, with Stuart Lancaster the high-profile arrival at Connacht.
Ulster, who finished the URC 14th in the table last year, had been in a promising position before a late-season capitulation. A similar collective return from the Irish provinces will leave big questions at the door of the IRFU.
Here's everything you need to know ahead of the opening round of games.
TV
Stormers v Leinster (Friday, 6pm) and Connacht v Benetton (Saturday, 7.45pm) are both live on TG4.
Ulster v Dragons (Friday, 8.05pm) and Scarlets v Munster (Saturday, 5.30pm), and all other games are live on Premier Sports and URC.tv
ONLINE
We'll have live score updates, reports and reaction from across the league.
WEATHER
Conditions will be great for the meeting of Stormers v Leinster in Cape Town, with Friday evening temperatures of around 19C, and a dry track to play on.
It should also be a nice evening in Belfast for Ulster v Dragons. Temperatures will drop to around 12C by kick-off, but it's forecast to be a dry day with gentle winds.
The weather will be less favourable in Llanelli on Saturday evening for Scarlets v Munster, with a strong chance of rain, and temperatures of 14C.
In Galway, the early morning rain should be cleared by the time Connacht and Benetton kick off at 7.45pm, but temperatures will be dropping to around 11C.
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Having gone on their South African tour after the Six Nations in the previous four seasons, Leinster begin the 2025/26 season with away games in Cape Town and Pretoria.
This will be the province's third time playing the Stormers away from home, losing 20-13 and 42-12 on their two visits to DHL Stadium.
The Stormers have an impressive record at home, losing just once on their own patch in any competition since April 2024. Munster are the only Irish province to win here, doing so twice in the 2022/23 season.
Champions in the inaugural URC season, the Stormers finishes in the competition have progressively got worse across the last four years, losing in the final in 2023, and being beaten in quarter-finals in each of the last two years.
Leinster were 36-12 winners in the most recent meeting of the teams in January 2025, their only win out of four previous games versus the Stormers.
Stormers: Wandisile Simelane; Seabelo Senatla, Ruhan Nel (capt), Dan du Plessis, Leolin Zas; Jurie Matthee, Stefan Ungerer; Vernon Matongo, Andre-Hugo Venter, Neethling Fouche; Adre Smith, JD Schickerling; Paul de Villiers, Ben-Jason Dixon, Evan Roos.
Replacements: JJ Kotze, Oli Reid, Zachary Porthen, Ruben van Heerden, Ruan Ackermann, Marcel Theunissen, Dewaldt Duvenage, Clinton Swart.
Leinster: Jimmy O'Brien; Tommy O'Brien, Robbie Henshaw, Ciarán Frawley, Jordan Larmour; Sam Prendergast, Luke McGrath (capt); Jack Boyle, Gus McCarthy, Rabah Slimani; Diarmuid Mangan, Brian Deeny; Ryan Baird, Scott Penny, James Culhane.
Replacements: John McKee, Paddy McCarthy, Andrew Sparrow, Max Deegan, Will Connors, Fintan Gunne, Harry Byrne, Hugh Cooney.
Referee: Gianluca Gnecchi (FIR)
Surely the only way is up for Ulster, after they finished third from bottom last season.
Richie Murphy begins his second full season in charge of the province this weekend, and on paper it's a game they should be winning comfortably. The Dragons finished bottom of the table in 2024/25, with their only win of the season coming on the opening weekend.
Ulster's season capitulated with four consecutive defeats to finish the regular season, but they haven't lost to the Dragons since March 2015 and haven't been beaten by them in Belfast since September 2008.
It's three years since the Dragons last beat an Irish team, and it's four years since they won in Ireland - that was away to Connacht in October 2021.
The Welsh side are in their first full season under head coach Filo Tiatia, who had been in interim charge for much of last season.
Ulster: Michael Lowry; Zac Ward, James Hume, Stuart McCloskey, Jacob Stockdale; Jack Murphy, Nathan Doak; Callum Reid, Rob Herring, Tom O'Toole; Iain Henderson (capt), Harry Sheridan; Cormac Izuchukwu, Nick Timoney, David McCann.
Replacements: Tom Stewart, Sam Crean, Scott Wilson, Matthew Dalton, Juarno Augustus, Conor McKee, Jake Flannery, Ben Carson.
Dragons: Angus O’Brien (co-capt); Rio Dyer, Joe Westwood, Aneurin Owen, Jared Rosser; Tinus de Beer, Rhodri Williams; Wyn Jones, Elliot Dee, Rob Hunt; Matthew Screech, Ben Carter (co-capt); Shane Lewis-Hughes, Harrison Keddie, Aaron Wainwright.
Replacements: Brodie Coghlan, Rodrigo Martinez, Dillon Lewis, Levi Douglas, Mackenzie Martin, Che Hope, Fine Inisi, Huw Anderson.
Referee: Griffin Colby (SARU)
Clayton McMillan's Munster mission begins in west Wales, and a ground where the visitors have a good recent record.
They have won each of their last three games at Parc y Scarlets, with their last most recent defeat at this ground coming in March 2019.
Those three away wins form part of a seven-game winning streak for Munster against this weekend's opposition.
The Scarlets finished 2024/25 strongly, getting back into the play-offs before giving Leinster a good game in the quarter-finals.
A few weeks earlier in the regular season they defeated Leinster at home, which was their first win against an Irish province since March 2021.
Munster won just four of 14 games away from home in all competitions last season.
Scarlets: Blair Murray; Tom Rogers, Joe Roberts, Joe Hawkins, Ellis Mee; Sam Costelow, Gareth Davies; Kemsley Mathias, Harry Thomas, Henry Thomas; Jake Ball, Sam Lousi; Tristan Davies, Josh Macleod (capt), Taine Plumtree.
Replacements: Kirby Myhill, Alec Hepburn, Harri O'Connor, Max Douglas, Jarrod Taylor, Dane Blacker, Johnny Williams, Macs Page.
Munster: Mike Haley: Shane Daly, Dan Kelly, Alex Nankivell, Thaakir Abrahams; JJ Hanrahan, Craig Casey (capt); Jeremy Loughman, Niall Scannell, Oli Jager; Jean Kleyn, Fineen Wycherley; Jack O'Donoghue, Alex Kendellen, Brian Gleeson.
Replacements: Lee Barron, Josh Wycherley, Conor Bartley, Tom Ahern, Gavin Coombes, Paddy Patterson, Jack Crowley, Seán O’Brien.
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
The Stuart Lancaster era begins for Connacht with a visit of Benetton, whose only win in 12 previous visits to Galway came back in December 2011.
The overall head to head record has become much more even in recent seasons. While Connacht lead the head-to-head stakes 17-8, with one draw also, four of Benetton's wins in this fixture have come in their last seven meetings.
Connacht's 2024/25 season finished with a win against Italian opposition, defeating Zebre, but that ended a five-game losing run in the league, which saw them finish 13th in the table.
Benetton missed out on a spot in the play-offs but did have a strong end to the season, winning four of their final six games, those defeats coming away to Stormers and Munster.
Connacht's home form last season was mixed, with seven wins and six losses in all competitions, although one of those defeats came at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar, versus Munster.
Connacht: Sean Naughton; Chay Mullins, Byron Ralston, Cathal Forde, Shayne Bolton; Josh Ioane, Caolin Blade; Peter Dooley, Dylan Tierney-Martin, Sam Illo; Niall Murray, Josh Murphy; Paul Boyle (capt), Shamus Hurley-Langton, Sean Jansen.
Replacements: Dave Heffernan, Jordan Duggan, Fiachna Barrett, David O'Connor, Joe Joyce, Ben Murphy, Jack Carty, Cian Prendergast.
Benetton: Matt Gallagher; Louis Lynagh,Tommaso Menoncello,Malakai Fekitoa,Onisi Ratave; Jacob Umaga,Louis Werchon; Ivan Nemer, Siua Maile, Simone Ferrari; Niccolò Cannone, Eli Snyman; Sebastian Blacks, Michele Lamaro (capt), So'otala Fa'aso'o.
Replacements: Richie Asiata, Mirco Spagnolo, Tiziano Pasquali, Riccardo Favretto, Lorenzo Cannone, Alessandro Garbisi, Giuliano Avaca, Paolo Odogwu.
Referee: Christopher Allison (SARU)
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