The United Rugby Championship 🏆 is a rugby competition involving sides from Ireland ☘️, Italy 🇮🇹, Scotland 🏴, South Africa 🇿🇦 and Wales 🏴. See below for the latest United Rugby Championship predictions.
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The league is one of the three major professional leagues in Europe 🇪🇺 (along with the English Premiership and the French Top 14). The most successful European teams from each go forward to compete in the European Rugby Champions Cup 🏆. This is the pan-European championship which replaced the Heineken Cup after the 2013–14 season.
Beginning with the creation of the Welsh–Scottish League in 1999, the league would become known as the Celtic League when it grew to include teams from Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The league was sponsored by Irish cider makers Magners from the 2006–07 season until 2010–11. At the start of the 2010–11 season, the league expanded from 10 to 12 teams, adding two Italian 🇮🇹 teams.
Following the end of Magners’ sponsorship, the league was sponsored by RaboDirect from 2011–12 through to 2013–14. The Pro12 name was adopted in 2011 to reflect that the league now included teams from outside the Celtic nations. A further expansion to 14 teams took place from the 2017–18, with two South African teams joining the Championship. The current sponsorship deal with Guinness commenced at the beginning of the 2014–15 season.
FORMAT
As of 2021–22, the championship season takes place between September and May. Teams are split into four regional pools – Ireland, Wales, South Africa, Scotland and Italy – for fixture setting.
Teams play each of the other teams in their pool twice (home and away) and each team from the other pools once (either home or away). Consequently, this ensures that Irish, South African and Welsh teams each play six derby matches. For Italy and Scotland, their respective clubs play their own nations’ sides only twice. All teams are sorted in a single league table.
Subsequently, this creates an 18-match regular season before the play-offs. Altogether a full single round robin with three additional ‘derby ties’ (or one extra derby and two extra Scottish-Italians ties in that pool). The play-offs are made up of the top eight teams, and consist of a straight knockout tournament. Teams are seeded 1–8 and the lowest-seeded teams receive home advantage. Finally, the final is held in a pre-arranged venue.
See below for the latest United Rugby Championship predictions, results, rankings and tips for all the matches. All powered by the Algorithm and refreshed daily. 🤟
