The 2021–22 United Rugby Championship was the twenty-first season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League. It was the first season that the competition is referred to as the United Rugby Championship, having previously been known as the Pro14.
Sixteen teams competed in this season – four Irish teams: Connacht, Leinster, Munster and Ulster; two Italian teams: Benetton and Zebre Parma; two Scottish teams: Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors (with Scottish and Italian teams in a shared regional pool); four South African teams: Bulls, Lions, Sharks and Stormers; and four Welsh teams: Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets. It is the first season in which URC Regional Shields (Irish, Welsh, South African and Scottish-Italian) will be awarded as separate trophies to the leading sides in each nation or region.
Format The tournament consisted of 18 rounds. 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). 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. There is only one main league table (the conference system used in previous Pro14 years has been dropped). The top eight sides in the table will 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.
A total of eight sides qualified for the following season's European Rugby Champions Cup, while the remaining eight sides will play in the EPCR Challenge Cup. All points won in the competition contributed to rankings in the regional pools, with the top side in each regional pool automatically qualifying for the European Rugby Champions Cup. The remaining four places went then go to the highest ranked teams in the main table (who haven't already qualified). A similar format was used to determine playoff contenders in the Super Rugby competition. This will see the South African sides in the competition qualifying for a European competition for the first time (subject to finalisation of contract terms), as previous South African participants – the Cheetahs and Southern Kings – were ineligible for European competitions.
Teams
United Rugby Championship Team Country Coach /Director of Rugby Captain Stadium Capacity Stadio Comunale di Monigo Loftus Versfeld 51,762 Cardiff Arms Park 12,125 Galway Sportsgrounds Rodney Parade Edinburgh Rugby StadiumMurrayfield Stadium Scotstoun Stadium RDS Arena 18,500 Ellis Park Stadium 62,567 Thomond ParkMusgrave Park 25,6008,008 Swansea.com Stadium 20,827 Parc y Scarlets 14,870 Kings Park Stadium 52,000 DHL Stadium Danie Craven Stadium 55,000 16,000 Ravenhill Stadium 18,196 Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi 5,000
Locations Location of Irish, Scottish and Welsh teams:Location of Italian teams:
Location of South African teams:
Tables
URC – Regional Shields Pools Tables
The Regional Shield pools of the regular season are the primary mechanism by which teams qualify for European competition, with the 'Shield winner' of each regional pool guaranteed qualification for the European Rugby Champions Cup, ensuring at least one South African, one Welsh and one Irish side qualify for the premier European competition. As Scotland and Italy are sharing a single regional pool, at least one team from those two countries combined is also guaranteed entry, but neither country individually is so guaranteed.
The remaining four places will be awarded to those with the four best overall regular season records, regardless of which pool they take part in. As such, it is possible that a team will qualify for the ERCC without reaching the URC play-offs by topping its pool, but finishing ninth or lower overall; conversely, it is also possible that a team could win the entire URC championship from seventh or eighth seed in the overall championship table, but fail to qualify for the ERCC because teams below them topped their respective pools. Since each pool has only four teams, this means in effect that the top 6 in the overall table are guaranteed entry into the Champions Cup, with the final two places dependent on the placement of the two lowest ranked pool shield winners.E.g. It is mathematically possible for a team in 13th position in the overall table to win their regional pool, if their pool rivals finish 14th, 15th and 16th.
United Rugby Championship table
The overall United Rugby Championship table is the central pillar of the regular season, and the mechanism by which the teams qualifying for the Championship play-off bracket are decided. The top eight teams in the table at the end of the regular season, regardless of regional pool, qualify for the play-off quarter-finals, seeded in the order they finished the regular season.
The overall table also provides the secondary path to qualification for the European Rugby Champions Cup, with the four highest-ranked teams not already qualified as Shield winners gaining qualification.
Regular season
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Round 4
Round 5
Round 6
Round 7
Round 8
Round 9
Round 10
Round 11
Round 12
Round 13
Round 14
Round 15
Round 16
Round 17
Round 18
Play-offs Bracket
The play-off draw was seeded by final finishing position in the regular season table
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Championship final The first United Rugby Championship Final was an all-South African derby, ensuring the first ever South African winner of the tournament, the Bulls having narrowly missed out on winning the transitional Pro14 Rainbow Cup competition. It also marked the first time in the history of the competition that a Grand final play-off match has not included at least one Irish province, a run of 14 finals.
Attendances by club ClubHomegamesTotalAverageHighestLowest% Capacity Benetton 0 0 0 0 0 0% Bulls 9 35,782 5,112 19,436 2,000 9.88% Cardiff 4 29,372 7,343 8,194 5,292 60.56% Connacht 8 40,140 5,018 9,875 3,007 48.93% Dragons 4 22,671 5,668 6,398 5,043 65.15% Edinburgh 5 46,852 5,666 24,187 5,330 72.64% Glasgow Warriors 0 0 0 0 0 0% Leinster 11 155,512 14,138 32,411 8,559 60.32% Lions 0 0 0 0 0 0% Munster 9 102,101 11,345 20,657 5,000 66.09% Ospreys 4 22,426 5,607 5,767 5,286 26.92% Scarlets 3 20,234 6,745 7,824 6,074 45.36% Sharks 0 0 0 21,832 0 0% Stormers 0 0 0 0 0 0% Ulster 8 91,752 11,469 16,274 9,542 63.03% Zebre Parma 5 7,700 1,540 2,000 1,300 30.80%
Highest attendances Date Game Stadium Attendance 21 May 2022 Leinster (H) v Munster Aviva Stadium 32,41118 June 2022 Stormers (H) v Bulls Cape Town Stadium 31,00011 June 2022 Stormers (H) v Ulster Cape Town Stadium 30,000 21 May 2022 Edinburgh (H) v Glasgow Murrayfield Stadium 24,187 23 April 2022 Sharks (H) v Leinster Kings Park Stadium 21,832 2 April 2022 Munster (H) v Leinster Thomond Park 20,657 2 April 2022 Bulls (H) v Ulster Loftus Versfeld Stadium 19,436
End of Season Awards
URC Dream Team The 2021–22 United Rugby Championship Dream team is:
Pos Player TeamFB 15 Warrick Gelant StormersRW 14 Seabelo Senatla StormersOC 13 James Hume UlsterIC 12 Damian Willemse StormersLW 11 Leolin Zas StormersFH 10 Ross Byrne LeinsterSH 9 Craig Casey MunsterN8 8 Evan Roos StormersOF 7 Nick Timoney UlsterBF 6 Marcell Coetzee BullsRL 5 Ruan Nortjé BullsLL 4 Jean Kleyn MunsterTP 3 Thomas du Toit SharksHK 2 Johan Grobbelaar BullsLP 1 Ox Nché Sharks
Award winners The 2021–22 URC award winners were: AwardWinner Players' Player of the Season Evan Roos (Stormers) Next-Gen Player of the Season Evan Roos (Stormers) Fans' Player of the Season Evan Roos (Stormers) Golden Boot Gareth Anscombe (Ospreys) Top Try Scorer Marcell Coetzee (Bulls) Leolin Zas (Stormers) Tackle Machine Alan O'Connor (Ulster) Turnover King Jac Morgan (Ospreys) Ironman Award Ruan Nortjé (Bulls) Coach of the Season Leo Cullen (Leinster)
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.
Most points
Rank Player Club Points 1 Manie Libbok Stormers 171 2 Chris Smith Bulls 153 3 Rhyno Smith Benetton 142 4 Curwin Bosch Sharks 138 5 Ross Byrne Leinster 125
Most tries
Rank Player Club Tries1 Marcell Coetzee Bulls 11 Leolin Zas Stormers 3 Rhyno Smith Benetton 104 Johan Grobbelaar Bulls 9 Seabelo Senatla Stormers
Referees The following referees have officiated at least one match during the 2021–22 season. Numbers in brackets denote the number of matches officiated during 2021–22. Correct as on fixtures played on 18 June 2022.
Andrew Brace (14) Frank Murphy (14) Chris Busby (13) Craig Evans (11) Sam Grove-White (10) Adam Jones (10) Andrea Piardi (10) Ben Whitehouse (10) Ben Blain (9) Mike Adamson (8) Gianluca Gnecchi (7) Jaco Peyper (7) Marius van der Westhuizen (7) AJ Jacobs (5) Hollie Davidson (3) Nika Amashukeli (2) Aimee Barrett-Theron (2) Rasta Rasivhenge (2) Nic Berry (1) Pierre Brousset (1) Eoghan Cross (1) Joy Neville (1) Gareth Newman (1) Christophe Ridley (1) Tual Trainini (1)
References
Notes
External links Official website