The opening weekend saw three bonus point wins and one loss for the Irish provinces in the United Rugby Championship (URC), with only Leinster suffering defeat. Here is all the latest news in the URC including the most recent team news, upcoming fixtures and where to watch them.
Leister and Ulster will host their opening home games this weekend in their respective stadiums at the RDS and Kingspan Stadium. Connacht will host Glasgow at Galway's Sportsground, whilst Munster travel to northern Italy to take on Treviso.
It's an exciting weekend for Irish rugby fans to shake off the World Cup hangover and get back into supporting their provinces. Here's everything you need to know for the Irish province's URC fixtures this weekend.
URC Fixtures Round Two - Irish Teams
Saturday, October 28th - URC Fixtures
| Teams | Time | Venue | Where to watch | Tickets |
| Connacht v Glasgow | 3pm | Sportsground, Galway | Premier Sports & TG4 | Buy here |
| Leinster v Sharks | 4:55pm | RDS, Dublin | RTE & Premier Sports | Buy here |
Sunday, October 29th - URC Fixtures
| Teams | Time | Venue | Where to watch | Tickets |
| Benetton Treviso v Munster | 2pm | Stadio Monigo, Italy | RTÉ & Premier Sports | Buy here |
| Ulster v Bulls | 5pm | Kingspan Stadium, Belfast | TG4 & Premier Sports | Buy here |
United Rugby Championship Team News
Connacht URC Team News
Connacht played some scintillating rugby at the Sportsground against the Ospreys on Saturday afternoon, as international star Mack Hansen watched on. The men in green stormed out of the blocks with skipper, Caolin Blade, scoring a first half hat trick. This puts Blade in to 3rd on the all time try scorers list for Connacht, only 2 behind Tiernan O'Halloran. Connacht went in with a 27-0 lead at half time.
New fly half, JJ Hanrahan, put on a wonderful display in great conditions for running rugby. Cathal Forde showed a lot of class as he made a break from nothing to set up one of Blade's tries in the first half. Forde's second half try all but sealed it for the hosts. They now look ahead to a Glasgow side who are coming off the back of a rampant display where they defeated Leinster 41-25 at Scotstoun.
A moment of magic from Forde sees Caolin Blade score under the posts for @connachtrugby 🪄#BKTURC #URC | #CONvOSP pic.twitter.com/wWJEkX4swA
— BKT United Rugby Championship (URC) (@URCOfficial) October 21, 2023
Connacht head coach, Pete Wilkins, described the different challenge that lies ahead for his team this weekend:
I think Ospreys and Glasgow are at different stages of their journey. Ospreys have been through a period of transition and rebuilding. Obviously they'd some experienced guys playing on the weekend but a lot of youth particularly off the bench.
They (Glasgow) have had a decent lead in, all be it without their internationals. They've had all of last season and now this pre season to get aligned on a game plan that's been in place for more than a year. I think the fact they had so many internationals back for their game against Leinster is no coincidence in terms of how they're going after this season. We are playing pretty much a XV of international players and we need to approach it with that kind of respect and mindset. It's a really exciting match up.
Wilkins has gone for a 6-2 bench split for Saturday's game against Glasgow.
🟢 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐒 🟢
Here is your Connacht 23 for tomorrow's Round 2⃣ @URCOfficial clash against @GlasgowWarriors at The Sportsground 🟢🦅
Read more: https://t.co/AKDqzRd6CY#ConnachtRugby | 🎟️ https://t.co/Se8O5ZhxhG pic.twitter.com/YIVLEYxZwR— Connacht Rugby (@connachtrugby) October 27, 2023
Leinster URC Team News
Leinster are not a team that have become accustomed to losing over the past few seasons, especially in the URC. They were played off the park by a very impressive Glasgow side who have given Leo Cullen and his staff plenty to ponder over the course of this week. You have to stretch back to April 2022 to find the last time Leinster lost consecutive matches in the URC.
They are currently without their head coach, Jacques Nienaber, who is preparing for the World Cup final this week with the Springboks. A lot of Leinster's performance on Sunday showed the void left by Stuart Lancaster's departure and Nienaber's delayed arrival has had a knock on effect on the players. Leinster haven't lost a league match at the RDS since November 2021 and will be hoping they can reverse their fortunes to preserve their incredibly strong record.
Scott Penny will captain the Leinster team on Saturday with young outhalf Sam Prendergast again named to the bench. Max Deegan will make his 100th appearance for Leinster while Clontarf's Dylan Donnellan is set to make his first appearance for Leinster off the bench.
📥 | 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐃𝐒!
Here is the #LeinsterRugby team to face @SharksRugby tomorrow in the #BKTURC #FromTheGroundUp #LEIvSHA pic.twitter.com/loSjKFQh0I— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) October 27, 2023
The big news for the Sharks is the return of Aphiwe Dyantyi from a four year doping ban.
The Hollywoodbets Sharks team to tackle Leinster in our second game of the Vodacom United Rugby Championship 🦈
Full article: https://t.co/Spz8nH2W0I#FearTheFin @Vodacom #URC #LEIvSHA pic.twitter.com/H5RX5H9JoG— The Sharks (@SharksRugby) October 27, 2023
Munster URC Team News
Munster were the most impressive of the four provinces at the weekend recording a 34-21 over the Sharks at Thomond Park. With an influx of young home grown talent being injected in to the match day 23 while most of their internationals are resting or still at the World Cup, it was a performance the home crowd appeared incredibly bolstered by.
The bulk of that 23 are retained by Graham Rowntree for this weekend's trip to Italy.
Séan O'Brien is in line to make his first Munster appearance as he's named to the bench. Paddy Patterson also returns to the Munster matchday squad after an extended injury layoff.
📢 TEAM NEWS | Here is your Munster side to face Benetton in Round 2 of the URC in Italy on Sunday 💪
Paddy Patterson is set for his first appearance since March while Seán O'Brien is in line for his debut 🙌
Click the pic below for full details.#MUNvSHA #SUAF 🔴— Munster Rugby (@Munsterrugby) October 27, 2023
Ulster URC Team News
Ulster's campaign got off to a topsy turvy start away to Zebre in Parma as they escaped with a 40-36 win. It was an extremely end to end game with Ulster's defence looking well short of par. Coach Dan McFarland will be very disappointed with Ulster's lacklustre efforts at scrum time as new signings Greg McGrath and James French struggling, the latter receiving a yellow card in the final minutes while Zebre pressed on the Ulster line in search of a winner.
McFarland and his coaching team will be seeking a far more buttoned up performance this weekend. No doubt returning home to Ravenhill, with a newly laid artificial surface, will create a fresh atmosphere for the Ulster players. That will be vital in their approach to what will be a very physical encounter against a Bulls team who absolutely hosed the Scarlets last week, 63-21 at Loftus Versfeld.
team try 🔥
watch our extended match highlights here 👇https://t.co/Y4jr5dLEq5 pic.twitter.com/emMwoAXKb7— Ulster Rugby (@UlsterRugby) October 22, 2023
Newly converted winger, Mike Lowry, gave his thoughts on the weekend's performance;
Obviously delighted with the five points, it was far from perfect, we definitely have a lot to work on defensively and accuracy wise but I felt we attacked pretty well at times. Hopefully we are starting to see our attacking shape coming through and that’s really exciting.
We want to have a crack and enjoy it, fair play to Zebre, they gave us a real physical challenge, set pieces are a vital part of the game and they really took it to us up front – it was quite frustrating at times and we have to be better against the Vodacom Bulls next weekend.
Here's the team that Dan McFarland has named for that home opener at Ravenhill.
Back home at last! 😍
The Ulster team to take on @BlueBullsRugby at Kingspan Stadium this Sunday! 🔥
🎟️ | https://t.co/6OhL6XfTbh pic.twitter.com/xUYAyk0k88— Ulster Rugby (@UlsterRugby) October 27, 2023
