2023–24 United Rugby Championship Explained

Countries: Ireland
Italy

South Africa
Date:21 October 2023 – 22 June 2024
Champions:Glasgow Warriors
Count:2
Runnersup:Bulls
Matches:151
Website:unitedrugby.com
Prevseason:2022–23
Nextseason:2024–25

The 2023–24 United Rugby Championship was the 23rd season of the professional rugby union competition known as the United Rugby Championship, and the third season under that name. It began on 21 October 2023 and ended on 22 June 2024. The reigning and defending champions were Munster, who defeated Stormers in the 2023 final.[1]

Glasgow Warriors claimed the 2023–24 championship, defeating the Bulls in the grand final.

Format

The season consists of 21 rounds: 18 rounds of regular season play, followed by three rounds of play-offs.

There are four regional pools: The Irish Shield pool (featuring the four Irish teams), the Welsh Shield pool (featuring the four Welsh teams), the South African Shield pool (featuring the four South African teams) and the Scottish/Italian 'Azzurri/Blue' Shield pool (featuring the two Italian and two Scottish sides). The pools serve two functions; they guarantee a full slate of derby matches for each team, and they award a minor Regional Shield trophy to the top team in each pool, which thereby functions as a national championship in three of the four pools, and a cross-border regional championship in the Scottish–Italian pool. They are no longer used to determine qualification for the European Rugby Champions Cup. Instead, the top eight teams in the league table qualify.[2]

The winner of each Shield is determined solely from the games played amongst the teams within their regional pool, mirroring the format of the old Interprovincial Championship in Ireland.[3]

Teams play six matches against their regional pool rivals home and away. The remaining twelve matches are made up by a single round robin, consisting of an even number of six home and six away matches against all the sides from the other pools.[4]

For the Championship itself, there is one main league table. The top eight sides in the table qualify for the quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals and a grand final, with teams seeded 1 to 4 with home advantage for the lowest seeded side. The Regional Shield pools have no direct link to the play-offs and by extension the Championship itself, and it is technically possible to win a Regional Shield but not contest the play-offs, as the Welsh sides showed in 2022 and 2023.[4]

Teams

United Rugby Championship

TeamCountryCoach /
Director of Rugby
CaptainStadiumCapacity
Eli Snyman
Stadio Comunale di Monigo

Loftus Versfeld Stadium51,762
Cardiff Arms Park12,125
The Sportsground
Rodney Parade

Edinburgh Rugby Stadium
Murrayfield Stadium

Scotstoun Stadium

[5]
RDS Arena
Aviva Stadium
18,500
51,700
Ellis Park Stadium62,567
Thomond Park
Musgrave Park
25,600
8,008
Swansea.com Stadium20,827
Parc y Scarlets14,870
Kings Park Stadium52,000
Cape Town Stadium
Danie Craven Stadium[6]
55,000
16,000
Ravenhill Stadium18,196
Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi5,000

Locations

Location of Irish, Scottish and Welsh teams:Location of Italian teams:Location of South African teams:

Regional Shield competitions

This season, for the first time, regional shield standings were based entirely on performances against other teams within the same conference.[3] Therefore, only six games for each team counted towards the regional shields.

European qualification

The national shields no longer factor into qualification for the European Rugby Champions Cup, in order to increase meritocracy and competition within the league.

Priority order for European Champions Cup qualification is:

All 16 teams, however, are guaranteed entry into one of the two competitions.

The following teams have therefore confirmed their qualification for the European Rugby Champions Cup for the 2024–25 season:

via 2023–24 EPCR Challenge Cup

No URC side won a place with victory in the 2023–24 European Rugby Champions Cup, Leinster losing in the final to Toulouse.

The following teams therefore confirmed their qualification for the European Rugby Champions Cup for the 2024–25 season by placement in the URC regular season:

The final Champions Cup place was therefore to be taken by either Benetton (7th) or Ospreys (8th). If Ospreys won the URC outright, they will take the final berth in the Champions Cup as URC Champion. Any other result would mean Benetton qualify for the Champions Cup in 2024–25. Osprey's quarter final defeat confirmed Benetton Rugby in the final berth. Wales will have no representative in the 2024–25 Champions Cup.

Zebre, Dragons, Scarlets, Cardiff Rugby, Edinburgh, Connacht, Lions and Ospreys have qualified for the European Rugby Challenge Cup for 2024–25. All five nations in URC will be represented in the competition.

Matches

The following are the match results for the 2023–24 United Rugby Championship regular season:

BENBULCARCONDRAEDIGLALEILIOMUNOSPSCASHASTOULSZEB
Benetton18–1436–1931–69–1915–1013–1318–1320–1736–14
Bulls56–3553–2740–3430–2822–2761–2463–2144–1040–22
Cardiff22–2312–1812–1655–217–2420–3329–3323–2931–24
Connacht34–2622–2414–3822–934–2626–1012–1622–2054–16
Dragons10–319–1627–3417–2210–3320–513–1221–4420–13
Edinburgh22–2431–2325–2219–1417–1626–2919–1543–1840–14
Glasgow Warriors26–1217–1340–722–1043–2521–1020–933–2038–26
Leinster47–1847–1433–736–2721–1661–1454–534–1321–22
Lions10–2534–1349–2444–1213–3340–1033–3561–19
Munster20–1547–1245–1440–293–934–2110–329–2445–29
Ospreys27–2126–1323–3136–2117–2731–919–519–1734–31
Scarlets16–1331–2532–153–4523–247–4211–2527–3220–31
Sharks24–2514–2614–3612–1369–1423–1318–2023–2522–12
Stormers26–2043–2142–1229–2421–2752–716–1513–731–7
Ulster38–3426–1919–1720–1949–2624–2723–2124–1721–14
Zebre Parma24–3129–5422–2219–249–407–3118–3212–1036–40
Updated to match(es) played on 18 May 2024
Colours: Green: home team win; Yellow: draw; Red: away team win; Blue: upcoming matches

Regular season

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Round 8

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Round 9

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Round 10

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Round 11

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Round 12

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Round 13

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Round 14

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Round 15

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Round 16

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Round 17

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Round 18

Knockout stage

For the first time, all five participating nations are represented in the URC play-offs, following a set of results on the final day that elevated Ospreys three places in the table to take the last available berth.

Bracket

The play-off draw is seeded based on final positions in the regular season league table.

The higher-ranked teams have home advantage in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final.

Final

See main article: 2024 United Rugby Championship final.

The 2024 United Rugby Championship Final will be held in South Africa for the third time in succession. The final will be the second appearance of the Bulls following their defeat in 2022, and the first appearance of Glasgow Warriors who become the first Scottish team, and indeed the first team outside of South Africa and Ireland, to reach the final since the competition adopted its current format. It will be Glasgow's fourth final appearance overall in the various forms of the competition. For the third year in succession, the top seeded team entering the playoffs failed to reach the final.

Leading scorers

Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under World Rugby eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.

As of 16 June 2024[7]

Most points

RankPlayerClubPoints
1 175
2 167
3 118
4 117
5 115
Benetton
7 111
Stormers
9 109
10 89

Most tries

RankPlayerClubTries
1 14
2 12
3 11
4 10
5 9
Bulls
Glasgow Warriors
Ulster
9 8
Bulls
Lions
Stormers
Ulster
Ospreys

End of Season Awards

URC Elite XV

The 2023–24 United Rugby Championship Elite XV is:[8]

PosPlayerTeam
FB 15 Stormers
RW 14 Leinster
OC 13 Glasgow
IC 12 Munster
LW 11 Bulls
FH 10 Munster
SH 9 Ulster
N8 8 Bulls
OF 7 Bulls
BF 6 Edinburgh
RL 5 Bulls
TP 4 Munster
TP 3 Bulls
HK 2 Bulls
LP 1 Sharks

Award winners

The 2023–24 URC award winners were:[9]

AwardWinner
Vodacom Player of the Season Sanele Nohamba (Lions)
Players' Player of the Season Jack Crowley (Munster)
Next-Gen Player of the Season Jack Crowley (Munster)
Fans' Player of the SeasonTBC
Golden Boot Chris Smith (Bulls)
Top Try Scorer Johnny Matthews (Glasgow Warriors)
Try of the Season powered by URC.tv Aphelele Fassi (Sharks)
Tackle Machine Alessandro Izekor (Benetton)
Turnover King Jamie Ritchie (Edinburgh)
Ironman Award Shane Daly (Munster)
BKT Coach of the Season Graham Rowntree (Munster)
Innovation Award Benetton

Attendances

This season saw a record United Rugby Championship attendance, with a 3% increase in overall attendance for a total of 1.69 million, and an average of 11,200 per game. The highest attendance for a single round was 146,000 for round 9. [10]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: URC Releases Fixtures 102 Days Ahead of Kick-Off. United Rugby Championship.
  2. Web site: 12 May 2023 . United Rugby Championship: 'Meritocracy' Champions Cup qualification returns while the final venue format is maintained . 1 November 2023 . Planet Rugby.
  3. Web site: 17 October 2023 . Meritocracy Qualification Will Make URC Stronger . 19 November 2023 . United Rugby Championship .
  4. News: United Rugby Championship Format Explained. Pro14. 15 June 2021. 15 June 2021. 15 June 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210615152732/https://www.pro14.rugby/latest/news/united-rugby-championship-format-explained. dead.
  5. https://www.irishrugby.ie/2023/11/09/leinster-name-garry-ringrose-and-james-ryan-as-co-captains/ "Leinster Name Garry Ringrose And James Ryan As Co-Captains"
  6. Web site: 14 September 2022 . DHL Stormers to face Edinburgh at DHL Stadium . 25 September 2022 . The Stormers.
  7. Web site: Stats . United Rugby Championship . 20 May 2024.
  8. https://www.unitedrugby.com/latest/news/elixirr-innovation-award-elite-xv "URC AWARDS: Elixirr Innovation Award & Elite XV winners announced"
  9. News: URC Awards: Jack Crowley named Players’ Player of the Season . United Rugby Championship . 20 June 2024 . 20 June 2024 .
  10. Web site: Broadcast and attendance records broken as URC's growth continues at pace . 2024-07-29 . United Rugby Championship.