Watch many of the world’s finest domestic sides battle for supremacy in the United Rugby Championship. New for 2021, the competition is one of Europe’s three major professional rugby leagues (alongside the Premiership and the Top 14) and replaces the PRO14.
The United Rugby Championship features elite sides from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. Plus, for the first time ever, these teams will compete against South Africa’s Super Rugby sides.
Read on to discover even more about the United Rugby Championship. On this page, you’ll discover everything you need to know about the tournament, including the latest fixtures, news and results.
Henry Immelman sent a last-gasp penalty wide as Edinburgh suffered an agonising 33-31 defeat in their United Rugby Championship clash against the Bulls in Pretoria. With Darcy Graham scoring a hat-trick, the Scottish side had fought back from an early 15-0 deficit.
The United Rugby Championship’s Head of Match Officials Tappe Henning has added a new element to the competition with the introduction of an independent referee selection panel - writes Leezil Hendricks.
The history of the United Rugby Championship can be traced back to 1999, when the Welsh-Scottish League was formed. Three seasons later, teams from Ireland, Scotland and Wales joined the competition and it became known as the Celtic League.
At the start of the 2010-11 season, the competition expanded once more and two Italian teams joined. At this stage, the competition became known as the PRO12. After several more successful seasons, the competition expanded once again and became known as the PRO14, when two teams from South Africa joined.
After one of the South African sides entered liquidation and withdrew from the league in 2020, SA rugby voted that their Super Rugby sides would represent the country in the competition from 2021. Following a truncated 2020 season, one-off editions of the PRO14 Rainbow Cup and the PRO14 Rainbow Cup SA tournaments were played, where the four South African sides featured for the first time.
16 teams compete in the United Rugby Championship, including four Irish teams, two Italian teams, two Scottish teams, four South African teams and four Welsh teams.
These teams are split into four regional pools, with the Scottish and Italian teams featuring in the same pool to make four pools of four teams.
Sides then play against their regional pool rivals at home and away. They’ll also play a further 12 matches by featuring in an even number of home and away matches against sides from the other pools.
The results from these fixtures will form one league table. At the end of the rounds, the top eight sides in the United Rugby Championship table will qualify for the quarter finals. These matches will be followed by semi-finals and a grand final.
The top side from each regional pool in the United Rugby Championship will also qualify for the Heineken Champions Cup (all points won in the competition count in these rankings). The remaining four places in the competition will then go to the highest ranked teams who have not yet qualified. The eight remaining teams will then play in the European Rugby Challenge Cup.
Benetton 
Bulls 
Cardiff Blues 
Connacht 
Edinburgh 
Glasgow 
Gwent Dragons 
Leinster 
Lions 
Munster 
Ospreys 
Scarlets 
Sharks 
Stormers 
Ulster 
Zebre 