United Rugby Championship 2023/24 Fixture List Revealed

Season twenty-three of the United Rugby Championship (URC) will get underway on October 21^st as the Rugby World Cup hits its semi-final stages. 

Now in its third season of the current format, the URC has already had winners from two separate nations, with South Africa’s DHL Stormers winning year one before Munster Rugby claimed the 2022/23 crown. 

Now 102 days away from the kick-off of the 144-game season, the competition organisers have released the fixtures lit.

Getting underway in Italy this season as Ulster travel to Parma to face Zebre, before Connacht host the Ospreys at the same time as the DHL Stormers travel to face the Emirates Lions. The competition reaffirmed its status as the most international league in professional rugby. 

Speaking at the schedule release, United Rugby Championship CEO Martin Anayi said: “The fixture list is the central pillar to the operation of our league and teams and providing certainty to fans, clubs and broadcasters earlier than ever will have a positive impact. 

“Providing a set of fixtures that aims to balance kick-off times which encourage attendance and deliver big broadcasts while factoring in the travel necessary to compete in the Vodacom URC is a monumental task that cannot be underestimated.

“Each year we feel we are learning more and more about how to refine and improve our process and the final fixture list itself and I must express great gratitude to our broadcast partners who have supported so many requests from the league and our clubs. To deliver this fixture list 102 days ahead of kick-off is unprecedented for our league and gives us another target to beat again next year.” 

With such a jam-packed fixture list, there are several fixtures in round one that stand out as can’t miss. 

Starting with the defending champions Munster Rugby who will face off with 2022/23 quarterfinalists the Cell C Sharks in Saturday’s final fixture. 

A day later, Leinster Rugby will travel to Scotstoun to tackle fellow 2022/23 semi-finalists, the Glasgow Warriors, in a fixture between two sides who are highly touted as potential league winners. 

Key changes to the upcoming season were announced in an in-depth press release from the URC, which read, “After a two-year window of home or away fixtures against non-Shield opponents, the sequencing has been refreshed. The home and away sequence from this season will be reversed for the 2024/25 campaign to ensure a fair balance of home and away games against the same opponents over a two-year cycle. 

“In a new approach aimed at reducing long-haul travel across the league, the South African teams will tour twice rather than three times. This means a four-match tour to Europe in the early part of the season, followed by a two-game tour after the Six Nations (a balance of two three-game tours will be implemented if future calendars allow for it). 

“Additionally, the earlier generation of fixtures will assist all teams in their cross-hemisphere…