Q: What
is happening?
The Guinness
PRO14 is changing into a 16-team league called the United Rugby Championship
and will include South Africa’s former Super Rugby teams – Cell C Sharks, DHL
Stormers, Emirates Lions and Vodacom Bulls. These teams will play in the league
against the 12 existing teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales.
Q: So,
it’s back to a league format?
Yes, all
16 teams will be ranked from 1 to 16 in a single-standing league table to
decide who reaches the Quarter-finals. Additionally, regional pools will exist
to ensure home & away derby fixtures are played.
Teams will
be seeded from 1 to 8 and will receive home advantage according to their
seeding. A full round of Quarter-finals and Semi-finals will take place to
produce two teams who will qualify for the Grand Final.
Q: How
will the fixtures work and how many games will my team play?
Every team
will play 18 games in the regular season comprising of:
- 6 Home AND away fixtures against their regional pool
opponents
- 12 Home OR away fixtures against the other 12 teams in the
league
This means
derby matches are unaffected, and every team plays each other at least once each
season.
Q: Why
are you changing the name of the Tournament?
The United
Rugby Championship represents elite club rugby across two hemispheres. Each
team and territory offer something unique to the game; and although we are
unified by our love of the sport, the rivalries at the heart of the game remain
the reason we watch it.
With such
a complete change in format and the addition of the big-name South African
sides, it is the right time to change the name of the tournament that is more
fitting and will have much greater longevity. It’s fair to say using numbers in
the name hasn’t quite worked out so well.
Q: Why
‘United Rugby Championship’?
URC
symbolises a new era for club rugby, while not forgetting our roots as the
Celtic League. The URC brings together teams, players and fans from iconic
locations across the North & South. Over 140 names were tested – including
PRO16 and PRO Rugby Championship – but ultimately United Rugby Championship
rose to the top based upon feedback from stakeholders across a number of
internal and external surveys which have shaped the brand values and
expectations from teams, fans, media and broadcasters.
At its
core, the URC seeks to be Bigger, Bolder and Stronger that the previous
incarnations of the league with a more familiar format, no crossovers with
international weekends and more teams
capable of winning the title.
Q: What
is the effect of fewer regular season games and no crossover with international
weekends?
Fans, broadcasters and media will
always welcome new faces and breakthrough Next-Gen talents, but the message has
been consistent that they want to see the top internationals play more often in
the league. This will always have a natural challenge given that 16 teams are
feeding into five national squads, so by removing the crossover with
international weekends everyone can expect to see the top talent playing more
often than in the past.
With
expectations that the competitiveness of the league will be increased by the
addition of the South African teams, it will ensure that every game counts in
the race to reach the knock-out stages.
The
regular season will consist of 18 rounds followed by three rounds of knock-outs
including the Grand Final to provide an overall total of 21 game weekends per
season. This is down from a total of 24 when the tournament was previously a
12-team league.
Q: Regional
pools were mentioned earlier on, how will they work?
The regional pools are a mechanism
to ensure all home and away derby games are played while also recognising a
champion for that region each season. The Irish, South African and Welsh teams
all have their own natural pools of four while the Scottish and Italian teams
will enter into their own pool of four because each there are only two
participants from each nation involved.
This also
means that Edinburgh and Glasgow Warriors, Benetton and Zebre will only play
two derby games per season rather than three in the PRO14 format. The fixtures
from the regional pools will account for six games with the remaining 12 games
played against all other teams in the league. Points from all 18 games will be
used in the single-standing league table and for the regional pools.
Q:
How will Champions Cup qualification work?
A total of eight teams from the United Rugby Championship will qualify for the
Heineken Champions Cup. The winner of each pool will qualify, followed by the next
highest ranked teams in the main league table.
From the 2022/23, South African
teams will be able to enter the Champions Cup if they have finished in the
qualification places in the URC standings in 2021/22. Regional pool mechanic
will ensure at least one team will qualify.
All points won during the URC
season will contribute to rankings in the regional pools and the winner of each
pool will earn a place in the Champions Cup for the following season. This
addition to the format is expected to add even greater intensity to these
age-old rivalries.
The remaining four places will then
be awarded to the four highest-ranked teams in the single-standing league table
who did not win their regional pool. Final seeding for the Champions Cup will
be based upon the league positions of all eight teams.
Q: How are home or away fixtures decided?
The initial balance fixtures will
be predicated on a number of factors including: stadium availability; club
preference; player welfare, broadcast rights and the accommodation of mini‐tours involving fixtures with South
African clubs. Each year the home or away fixture will alternate much like it
does in the Guinness Six Nations, so if Ospreys played away to the DHL Stormers
in Cape during the 2021/22 season, then they would host the Stormers in Swansea
the following year and the fixture would continue to alternate on that basis.
Q: How will
teams cope with travelling to and from South Africa?
Visiting teams will require a 7-day turnaround leading
into these fixtures. This will include 5 ‘clean days’ that do not involve any
travel. Flights between Europe and South Africa are overnight which will allow
players to rest during their travel while training facilities and accommodation
venues have already been road-tested from previous Guinness PRO14 and Super Rugby
fixtures.
Q: How many
cross-hemisphere away games will teams play?
Teams from the ‘North’ (UK, Ireland, Italy) will
play two (2) away games in South Africa each season and the aim is for these
games to be played back-to-back. Teams from South Africa will play six (6) away
games in the North and most likely require three-game tours.
Q: What
Covid safety procedures have been introduced for cross-hemisphere travel?
It is widely expected that the
majority of player groups, coaching teams and support staff will have been
vaccinated ahead of the 2021/22 season. However, league organisers will
continue to follow the guidance of the Government and local Health Authorities,
as well as the Medical Advisory Group, which consists of the lead medical
chiefs from each of the five unions represented in the URC.
This group
has provided robust direction throughout the pandemic and has consistently
updated practices and policies as the science surrounding Covid-19 has advanced.
The appropriate testing and Covid safety protocols will continue to exist, while
all travelling teams will be based in facilities which meet Covid safety
requirements.
Q: How will
the knock-out stages work?
After 18
rounds, the top eight teams will be seeded 1 to 8 with the four highest-ranked
teams having home advantage for the Quarter-finals. That seeding will also
determine who plays at home in the Semi-finals.
How seeding will work for Quarter-final fixtures: 1st v 8th
, 2nd v 7th, 3rd v 6th, 4th
v 5th
Each season the URC Grand
Final will be held at a destination venue similar to the Guinness PRO12 and
PRO14 deciders held between 2015 and 2019.
Q: What are
the benefits of the new format?
Less
games to conflict with international weekends, one league table in place and a
full Quarter-final round of four games which will increase knock-out games from
five to seven.
Q: Why
are the Toyota Cheetahs and the Southern Kings no longer involved in this
league?
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic
had three major effects on the make-up of the Guinness PRO14. Firstly,
cross-hemisphere fixtures were not possible in 2020 and for much of 2021 and,
in addition, the Southern Kings were dissolved in September 2020. Finally, the
break-up of the Super Rugby tournament as it created an opportunity for the
South African Rugby Union’s executive committee to vote for their top four
‘franchises’ to join in place of the Cheetahs and Kings.
Q: When
will the season start & finish?
The
first round of the URC take place on the final weekend of September, and the URC
Grand Final weekend will take place in mid-June 2022.
Q: How
long will the URC remain in this exact format?
The
format of the URC will remain in this format for at least the next five years.
The intention is for the league not to change format again.