The 2026–27 United Rugby Championship is the upcoming 26th season of the professional rugby union competition currently known as the United Rugby Championship, the highest level domestic club rugby competition in South Africa, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy. This season will also be the sixth season under that name, and the sixth with the current collection of teams. It begins on 19 September 2026 and will end on 19 June 2027.
Leinster enter the competition as the two-time reigning champions. Leinster, Glasgow Warriors, Lions and Ospreys are defending the Irish, Scottish-Italian, South African and Welsh Shields respectively.
Format The 2026–27 season once again consists of 21 rounds: 18 rounds of regular season play, followed by three rounds of play-offs. The competition runs from September 2026 to June 2027, with the regular season ending in mid May. The season also contains breaks for the 2026 Nations Championship, the 2027 Six Nations (though some matches are played during 'fallow' weekends) and the various matchdays of the 2026–27 European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. The season does not overlap with the mid year series in the 2026 Nations Championship. Some South African teams will play derby matches throughout the Men's Six Nations window, as this is a competition in which the South Africa national team are not involved.
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 shared Italian-Scottish Shield pool (featuring the two Italian and two Scottish sides). The pools serve two functions; they guarantee a full slate of home-and-away derby matches for each team (which are often the best attended and most remunerative fixtures for the clubs involved), and they award a minor Regional Shield trophy to the top team in each pool, which thereby functions as a de facto national professional championship in three of the four pools, and a cross-border regional championship in the Scottish–Italian pool. The winner of each Shield will be determined solely from the games played amongst the teams within their regional pool, mirroring the format of the old Interprovincial Championship in Ireland.
In Scotland, the two pool games involving both Scottish sides also decide the 1872 Cup, effectively a Scottish national professional championship. The two Italian sides have no individual trophy to play for.
Teams therefore play six matches against their regional pool rivals, in a home and away double round-robin. The remaining 12 matches are made up by a single round robin of the remaining teams, consisting of an even number of six home and six away matches against all the sides from the other pools, with home advantage alternating each year. Generally each team will play two of the teams in each of the other pools at home, and two away, with the matches away to South African teams usually held back to back as a 'mini-tour' to reduce travel. The South African teams in turn have six European matches, which are arranged as a series of three 'mini-tours' of two matches to reduce air travel.
For the United Rugby Championship itself, there is one main league table. The top eight sides in that table at the end of the regular season will qualify for the play-off quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals and a grand final. The playoffs are seeded, with the top four seeds having home advantage at the quarter-final stage. In the semi-finals and final, the better ranked club in each tie has home advantage, so the number one team in the ladder will retain home advantage for as long as it progresses in the competition, including the final (unlike the Prem Rugby competition in England where the final is held in the neutral Twickenham Stadium).
The Regional Shield pools have no direct link to the play-offs and by extension the Championship itself, or European qualification, and it is technically possible to win a Regional Shield but not contest the play-offs.
Teams
Team Country Coach /Director of Rugby Captain Stadium CapacityPosition last season Wayne Pivac Stadio Comunale di Monigo 13th Johan Ackermann Loftus Versfeld Stadium 51,7624th, Runner-up Corniel van Zyl Cardiff Arms Park 12,1256th, play-off quarter-final Stuart Lancaster The Sportsground 8th, play-off quarter-final Filo Tiatia Rodney Parade 15th Sean Everitt Edinburgh Rugby StadiumMurrayfield Stadium 12th Franco Smith Scotstoun StadiumHampden Park 1st, play-off semi-final Leo Cullen RDS Arena 20,6002nd, Champion (10th title) Ivan van Rooyen Ellis Park Stadium 62,5677th, play-off quarter-final Clayton McMillan Thomond ParkMusgrave Park 25,6008,0085th, play-off quarter-final Mark Jones St Helen's 8,000 11th Dwayne Peel Parc y Scarlets 14,870 14th JP Pietersen Kings Park Stadium 52,000 10th John Dobson Cape Town StadiumDanie Craven Stadium 55,00016,0003rd, play-off semi-final Richie Murphy Ravenhill Stadium 18,196 9th Massimo Brunello Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi 5,000 16th Location of Irish, Scottish and Welsh teams:Location of Italian teams:
Location of South African teams:
URC league standings
Regional shields Regional shield standings are based entirely on performances against other teams within the same conference. Therefore, only six games for each team count towards the regional shields. Leinster, Glasgow Warriors, Lions and Ospreys entered their respective Regional Shield competitions as reigning champions.
European qualification
Priority order for 2027–28 European Rugby Champions Cup qualification is as follows: 2026–27 United Rugby Championship champions the 2026–27 European Rugby Champions Cup champions (if a URC team but not already qualified as above) the 2026–27 EPCR Challenge Cup champions (if a URC team but not already qualified as above) the next highest-ranked teams during regular season play not already qualified as above, until eight overall qualifiers have been selected.
As a result of the priority order, the top five teams in the regular season standings are guaranteed qualification to the Champions Cup, with the remaining three places dependant on cup results this season.
The eight remaining teams qualify for the 2026–27 EPCR Challenge Cup.
Regular season
The matches for the regular season were announced on 19 May 2026. This season begins with a triple-header on Friday 25 September 2026, as Dragons visit Benetton, Connacht host Stormers and Ulster entertain Edinburgh, all matches beginning at 19:45. The remaining ten teams will begin their season the following day.
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
Knockout stage Bracket The top eight teams in the regular season standings advance to the knockout stage, a single-elimination tournament culminating in a Grand Final to crown the overall champion.
Teams are seeded based on the regular season standings, with teams ranked 1–4 receiving home field advantage in the quarter-final, with 1 playing 8, 2 playing 7 etc. The top two teams in the standings are seeded so as not to meet until the Grand Final.
Home-field advantage for the semi-finals and Grand Final will be awarded to the highest-ranked team in each tie; the top two teams are therefore guaranteed home advantage until the final for as long as they remain in the tournament, and the top ranked team in the standings will be awarded home advantage should they reach the Grand Final.
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
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 5 October 2026
Most points Rank Player Club Points 1 James Grayson Edinburgh 212 Vusi Moyo Sharks 20 Jack Murphy Ulster 4 George Horne Glasgow Warriors 19 5 Chris Smith Lions 17 6 Charlie O'Shea Munster 167 Bautista Bernasconi Benetton 15 Curwin Bosch Bulls Erich Cronjé Lions Tinus de Beer Dragons Elliot Dee Dragons Jamie Dobie Glasgow Warriors Fintan Gunne Leinster Kelly Mpeku Lions
Most tries Rank Player Club Tries1 Bautista Bernasconi Benetton 3 Erich Cronjé Lions Elliot Dee Dragons Jamie Dobie Glasgow Warriors Fintan Gunne Leinster Kelly Mpeku Lions7 Taine Basham Cardiff 2 Lili Bester Sharks Tom Bowen Cardiff Ciarán Frawley Connacht Luan Giliomee Sharks Reinhardt Ludwig Bulls Charlie O'Shea Munster Macs Page Scarlets Kyle Rowe Glasgow Warriors Manu Tshituka Sharks Ruan Vermaak Bulls
References
External links