It's moving week in the BKT United Rugby Championship for the teams with ambitions of securing top seeding and those who are fighting for play-off places.
All four Irish provinces are in action with a mouth-watering Munster v Ulster clash on Saturday the headline game of round 16.
Before that, Connacht finish off their South Africa tour against the Lions, while Leinster round off the action in Treviso on Saturday evening.
There's also a top of the table clash with Stormers welcoming Glasgow Warriors to Cape Town.
Find out all you need to know about the matches here.
ONLINE
We'll have live scoring, reports and reaction on RTÉ.ie/sport
TV
Lions v Connacht (Saturday 3pm Irish time) and Benetton v Leinster (Saturday 7.45pm Irish) are live on TG4 and Premier Sports.
Munster v Ulster (Saturday, 5.30pm) is on Premier Sports.
All games are available on URC.tv
RADIO
Lions v Connacht, and Munster v Ulster are live on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport.
WEATHER
Johannesburg is expecting light rain in about 17C for Connacht's match.
It's set to be overcast in Limerick on Saturday evening for the derby, not much of a breeze in about 17C.
The forecast is for sunny conditions in Treviso on Saturday evening, a light breeze in about 20C.
Connacht are the form Irish team at the moment, their stunning 33-24 win at Stormers last week was their sixth victory in a row in the competition.
While their five-point haul had them inside the play-off places for a while, the rest of the pack also picked up wins that dropped Stuart Lancaster's men back to ninth.
Still, they'll have extra belief after the win in Cape Town and the carrot that they could leapfrog the Fidelity SecureDrive Lions (to give them their full title) with a bonus-point win.
The hosts are also on a hot streak with five wins on the bounce including last weekend's 54-12 victory over league leaders Glasgow.
Lions have lost just once at home in the URC this season, 17-52 to Vodacom Bulls in Round 11.
The visitors have won their last three clashes with South African opposition since Bulls beat them 28-27 at Dexcom Stadium in October 2025.
The two sides have met four times, with honours split evenly at two wins apiece.
Lions: Quan Horn; Angelo Davids, Henco van Wyk, Richard Kriel, Erich Cronje; Chris Smith, Morne van den Berg; SJ Kotze, PJ Botha, Asenathi Ntlabakanye; Ruan Venter, Darrien Landsberg; Siba Mahashe, Batho Hlekani, Francke Horn (capt).
Replacements: Morne Brandon, Eddie Davids, Sebastian Lombard, Reinhard Nothnagel, Siba Qoma, JC Pretorius, Nico Steyn, Kelly Mpeku.
Connacht: Sam Gilbert; Harry West, John Devine, Hugh Gavin, Shane Jennings; Jack Carty, Colm Reilly; Peter Dooley, Dylan Tierney-Martin, Jack Aungier; Niall Murray, Joe Joyce; Cian Prendergast (capt), Shamus Hurley-Langton, Paul Boyle.
Replacements: Matthew Victory, Billy Bohan, Fiachna Barrett, Darragh Murray, Sean Jansen, Matthew Devine, Sean Naughton, Shayne Bolton.
Referee: Filippo Russo (FIR)
Ulster come to Thomond Park on Saturday evening looking to do the double over Munster following their 28-3 win in Belfast at the start of the year.
That would be the first time to achieve that feat since the 2013/14 season.
The hosts, meanwhile, have not won back to back URC games since round five but come into this game off the back of a solid 45-10 victory at Benetton.
They have had numerous off-field issues to deal with but head coach Clayton McMillan has urged his team to focus on the run-in.
They sit just a point behind Richie Murphy's Ulster side, who fell to a 29-21 defeat at home to Leinster last weekend and are nursing a lengthy injury list that includes Angus Bell, Tom O'Toole and Bryn Ward.
The visitors have won successive away matches in the URC, at Zebre and Edinburgh, and have not won three in a row on their travels in the competition since October 2023.
McMillan has made just one change his team with Oli Jager starting at tighthead prop, while there are five academy players in the visiting matchday squad.
Munster: Shane Daly; Calvin Nash, Tom Farrell, Alex Nankivell, Andrew Smith; Jack Crowley, Craig Casey; Jeremy Loughman, Diarmuid Barron, Oli Jager; Jean Kleyn, Tadhg Beirne (capt); Tom Ahern, John Hodnett, Gavin Coombes.
Replacements: Lee Barron, Michael Milne, Michael Ala'alatoa, Edwin Edogbo, Brian Gleeson, Ben O’Donovan, Dan Kelly, Alex Kendellen.
Ulster: Michael Lowry (capt); Aitzol Arenzana-King, Ethan McIlroy, Ben Carson, Ben Moxham; Jake Flannery, Conor McKee; Eric O'Sullivan, James McCormick, Bryan O'Connor; Harry Sheridan, Charlie Irvine; James McKillop, Tom Brigg, Lorcan McLoughlin.
Replacements: John Andrew, Callum Reid, Tom McAllister, Joe Hopes, Marcus Rea, David Shanahan, James Humphreys, Jonny Scott.
Referee: Sam Grove-White (SRU)
Leinster, after a rollercoaster season, seem to have steadied the ship and are closing in on the top two.
Leo Cullen's men, who took a bonus-point win at Ulster last weekend, are in third place, level with Stormers on 51 points and four behind Glasgow.
They have won their last six clashes with Benetton, however, the champions only victory outside Ireland in the URC this season was away to Dragons in Round 6.
The Italians have lost successive matches at Stadio Monigo, to Munster in the URC and Exeter in the Challenge Cup, and have not lost three in a row at home since April 2022.
Joshua Kenny, who signed his first senior contract earlier this week, is Leinster's top try-scorer with nine, just one behind the league leader, Evan Roos of the Stormers.
The hosts are in 13th place and their only win in their last seven URC matches was a 31-19 over Ospreys in Round 13.
Cullen has made 13 changes to the side from last weekend including welcomereturns for back rows Caelan Doris and Josh van der Flier.
After this game, Leinster will turn their attention to their Champions Cup semi-final against Toulon on Saturday week.
Benetton: Matt Gallagher; Ignacio Mendy, Tommaso Menoncello, Malakai Fekitoa, Paolo Odogwu; Jacob Umaga, Alessandro Garbisi; Destiny Aminu, Bautista Bernasconi, Tiziano Pasquali; Giulio Marini, Riccardo Favretto; Manuel Zuliani, Michele Lamaro (capt), Lorenzo Cannone.
Replacements: Nicholas Gasperini, Ivan Nemer, Marcos Gallorini, Niccolò Cannone, So'otala Fa’aso’o, Eli Snyman, Andy Uren, Leonardo Marin.
Leinster: Ciarán Frawley; Tommy O'Brien, Rieko Ioane, Jamie Osborne, Jimmy O'Brien; Harry Byrne, Jamison Gibson-Park; Ed Byrne, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Conor O’Tighearnaigh, Brian Deeny; Jack Conan, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt).
Replacements: Gus McCarthy, Jerry Cahir, Thomas Clarkson, Alex Soroka, Scott Penny, Fintan Gunne, Sam Prendergast, Charlie Tector.
Referee: Morne Ferreira (SARU)
Elsewhere, there's a top of the table clash as second-place Stormers host Glasgow at the DHL Stadium. That game has a 12.45pm Irish time kick-off.
FULL LIST OF FIXTURES, RESULTS AND STANDINGS
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