United Rugby Championship Preview & Betting Guide

United Rugby Championship Preview

Who won the United Rugby Championship?

Leinster are the reigning champions of the United Rugby Championship, having defeated the Bulls 32-7 in the 2025 URC Grand Final at Croke Park in Dublin.

When is the United Rugby Championship?

The 2025-26 season of the United Rugby Championship will kick off on the 26th September 2025 and run through to the URC Grand Final on the 14th June 2026.

Who are the favourites to win the United Rugby Championship?

Nine-time and current champions Leinster are the pre-season favourites to retain their title and move into double figures for the number of titles won.

The Bulls, who have been beaten in three of the last four finals, are next on the bookies' list. They have never won the title. Could 2026 be their year?

Who will win the United Rugby Championship?

Head over to the OLBG Rugby Tips to see who they are tipping to win, not only the outright winner but also matches throughout the tournament.

Additionally, if you only want to view the tips from the top tipsters, those who have shown a profit on rugby over the past year, then head over to the Best Rugby Tipsters page.

What is the United Rugby Championship Format?

Sixteen teams start in the regular season, where they will each play eighteen games. There are four 'Regional Shield' pools with the Irish, Italian x Scottish, South African and Welsh.

The idea of these pools is that each of the four teams plays the other three teams home and away, which makes up six of the eighteen games.

The other twelve regular-season games will be against the twelve teams not in their pool; these are divided into six at home and six away.

When all eighteen matches have been played, the top 4 teams advance to the quarter-finals as home teams, whilst those in 5th to 8th place advance to the quarter-finals as the away teams.

The top eight teams all qualify for the Champions Cup, whilst those in the bottom half of the table qualify for the Challenge Cup.

United Rugby Championship Broadcast & Scheduling Info

For residents of the UK and Ireland, you can catch all of the United Rugby Championship action on the Premier Sports channels.

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United Rugby Championship Past Winners

The Irish have been pretty dominant in the URC, especially Leinster, whose win in 2025 was their 9th title and the 15th by an Irish team.

Munster (x4) are second on the list, adding another four titles for the Irish, and they are joined by Welsh side Ospreys, who also have four wins.

The other Irish titles are made up by Ulster and Connacht, who have one win apiece. Both the Glasgow Warriors and Scarlets have two wins apiece.

The only other team to have won the title is the Stormers, the only South African team to have done so.

The last ten United Rugby Championship Champions

United Rugby Championship Favourite Statistics

The favourite statistics for the United Rugby Championship have been fairly consistent over the last ten seasons, with all bar one of those being in the 70s range.

The season which saw more was the 2023-24 season, where 80.79% of favourites were successful (122 from 151), whilst last season was also decent with 76.82% (116 from 151).

That means that for the last two seasons of this tournament, we have seen 78.81% of favourites being successful, which is better than the 73.05% when looking three seasons before that time.

When looking at individual teams, it is no surprise, given their success at the tournament, that Leinster tops the list with an 85% win rate when favourites ahead of the Bulls (84%) and Stormers (83%).

United Rugby Championship Odds Statistics

Here we look at how teams perform between certain odds. What we know as bettors is that those shorter in price should win more games, simple as that!

The bars shown in blue are where the odds fall within or exceeded their expected percentage, whilst those in orange fall below expectations.

The short-priced teams (Under 1.40) conform to the expected win percentages for the teams priced up at those prices, the top four ranges all shown in blue.

However, once you move to teams priced up 1.40 to 1.89, then it's a different story; those have been quite unreliable, with four of the five ranges below the expected win rates.

Tournament Betting Comparison

Here is a comparison between some of the top rugby union tournaments (Leagues) for winning favourites.

As you can see below, only the two versions of the Six Nations beat the United Rugby Championship when it comes to winning favourites.

Over the past ten seasons, this league has seen on average 75.51% of favourites winning, that is roughly three in every four, which is a decent turnaround for rugby.

United Rugby Championship Teams

These are the sixteen teams that are competing in the 2025-26 United Rugby Championship. We have split them down into the four pools.

Irish Shield

Leinster have so far won all four of the Irish Shields, which is no surprise given their dominance in this tournament. As already mentioned, the Irish teams have been responsible for fifteen of the twenty-four championships, with Leinster winning nine of those.

Italian x Scottish Shield

This pool is made up of two Italian teams and two Scottish teams; each of the four winners has gone to Scottish teams, with Glasgow winning three and Edinburgh winning the other. Only Glasgow from this pool has won the championship; they won it in both 2015 & 2024.

South African Shield

This pool, made up of South African teams, has been the most competitive of the four pools, with three teams having won the shield. Stormers have won it twice, whilst both the Bulls and Sharks have also won. The Stormers (2022) are the only team to go on to win the championship.

Welsh Shield

Two of the four teams have recorded wins in the Welsh Shield; both the Ospreys and Cardiff have won the shield twice. Welsh teams have gone on to win the title six times, four for the Ospreys and two for the Scarlets, although the last of those was back in 2017.

United Rugby Championship Records

Most United Rugby Championship Appearances

There is only a handful of players who have made 200+ appearances in the URC, and only one of those has made 250+, that is John Muldoon, who made 254 appearances for Connacht in the URC.

John Turnball is next on the list and some 15 behind Muldoon, having made a combined 239 appearances for the Scarlets, Cardiff and Blues.

Two active players can still make it further up the list. Stephen Archer (Munster) is sitting on 237, and Denis Buckley (Connacht) has made 220 appearances.

Most Tries in the United Rugby Championship

When it comes to the number of tries scored in the URC, only six players have managed to score 50+ tries during their careers in this tournament.

Top of the list is Tommy Bowe, who has a combined 67 tries for Ulster and the Ospreys, and he is 8 ahead of Craig Gilroy, who scored 59 for Ulster.

Two active players have scored over 50 tries and still have a chance of moving up the list; those are the Scarlets pair of Gareth Edwards (55) and Steff Evans (52).

Most Points in the United Rugby Championship

Only six players have passed the 1,000 mark for points in the United Rugby Championship, and three of those have gone past the 1,500 mark!

Top of the pile is Dan Parks, whose combined points whilst playing for Glasgow, Connacht, Cardiff, and the Blues were 1,582.

The other two, not too far behind, are Dan Biggar, whose 1,573 points all came with Ospreys and Ian Keatley, who scored a combined 1,534 points with Connacht, Munster, Benetton and Glasgow.

A couple of those over 1,000 points are still active, and only one point separates the pair with Duncan Weir (1,021) at Glasgow and Jack Carty (1,020) at Connacht.