Leinster will head to South Africa for two epic opening weeks of next season’s Vodacom United Rugby Championship - going head to head with the DHL Stormers and Vodacom Bulls in the first fortnight of the competition.
The fixtures will also see back-to-back derbies in January between the Stormers and Hollywoodbets Sharks, while the Bulls and Stormers will have their traditional north-south derby on 3 January.
With the new season set to kick off on 26 September - the same weekend that the Rugby Championship goes into its last two weeks and the Springboks face Argentina in Durban - the URC has released the full set of fixtures earlier than ever before.
The release of the fixtures beats last year’s benchmark by 114 days, allowing fans and clubs to plan their schedules a lot earlier than before.
GROUNDBREAKING FOR LEINSTER TO TOUR EARLY
Leinster’s early tour - the earliest they have had to come to South Africa in the URC history is indeed groundbreaking - as they normally have to tour in between the Investec Champions Cup and Six Nations, often heading to South Africa with weakened squads.
But while part of that conundrum has been sorted, the fixtures will take place both during the Rugby Championship and are likely to also be when the British and Irish Lions players are in their pre-season resting periods, so it is touch and go whether Leinster’s 12 Lions will be on the tour.
The Sharks will head to Glasgow for an opening round date with the Warriors while the Emirates Lions will face Cardiff in the Welsh capital in their opening game.
The first South African derby will be the Bulls v Lions game on November 29 while a week before Christmas - on 19 December - the Stormers host the Lions and the Bulls travel to Durban to face the Sharks.
CHRISTMAS DERBIES LIKELY TO MOVE
The Christmas derbies between the Bulls-Stormers and Lions-Sharks, set for the Highveld, are to be confirmed, but are likely to be moved to later in the calendar with the two return derbies still taking place on 3 January in Cape Town and Durban respectively.
24 and 31 January see the Sharks and Stormers clash in home and away games, first in Cape Town and then in Durban.
Round 1 also sees games across all five competing territories with highlights including Glasgow Warriors hosting Hollywoodbets Sharks, Scarlets facing Munster, Connacht taking on Benetton and Ospreys visiting the Vodacom Bulls.
FORMAT UNCHANGED
The format of the competition remains unchanged, with the top eight teams progressing to the playoffs beginning 29 May.
The semifinals will be played on 6 June, followed by the Grand Final on 20 June to crown the 2025/26 champions.
Martin Anayi, United Rugby Championship CEO, said: “Advance planning is critical to the success of the United Rugby Championship and it is fantastic that we have continued to raise the bar in publishing our fixtures as early as possible.
“For clubs and fans, planning their weekends and knowing where their teams are playing so far ahead of time makes a big difference. The drama and excitement of the Vodacom URC is matched by the complexity of putting all of the pieces of the fixture list together but it is made much easier thanks to the support of our teams and broadcasters to assist us in this process.
“For the moment, we look forward to the playoffs that kick off next week after another regular season full of surprises. The Race to the Eight provided huge jeopardy and now we move into the ultimate win or go home stage of the competition which will lift the intensity up to another level.”
The URC fixture process continues to benefit from its work with Ligalytics, a German sports data and scheduling firm trusted across rugby, football, cricket, basketball, and hockey.
For the 2025/26 season, Ligalytics produced 202 workable fixture models based on over 4 000 individual constraints — allowing the league to deliver on essential travel requirements, support a balanced cadence of home and away fixtures across the full competition, and accommodate stadium availability and local restrictions.
Additional Information for the 2025/26 Season Touring Windows
• Multi-game tours can take place between Rounds 1–5 and Rounds 13–18 • Single-game tours are scheduled in Rounds 6 and 10, aligning with EPCR windows
Season Schedule
Round 1: September 26/27
Round 2: October 3/4
Round 3: October 10/11
Round 4: October 17/18
Round 5: October 24/25
Round 6: November 28/29
Round 7 (Festive Derbies): December 19/20
Round 8 (Festive Derbies): December 26/27
Round 9 (Festive Derbies): January 2/3
Round 10: January 23/24
Round 11: January 30/31
Round 12: February 27/28
Round 13: March 20/21
Round 14: March 27/28
Round 15: April 17/18
Round 16: April 24/25
Round 17: May 8/9
Round 18: May 15/16
Play-Off Schedule
Quarter-Finals: May 29/30
Semi-Finals: June 6/7
Grand Final: June 20
Round 1 Fixtures
Friday, Sep 26
DHL Stormers vs Leinster (DHL Stadium)
KO: 19:00 SA
Live On: SuperSport
Ulster vs Dragons RFC (Ulster Rugby Stadium)
KO: 21:05 SA
Live On: SuperSport
Glasgow Warriors vs Hollywoodbets Sharks (Scotstoun Stadium) KO: 21:05 SA
Live On: SuperSport
Saturday, Sep 27
Vodacom Bulls vs Ospreys (Loftus Versfeld Stadium)
KO: 14:00 SA
Live On: SuperSport
Zebre Parma vs Edinburgh (Stadio Lanfranchi)
KO: 16:05 SA
Live On: SuperSport
Scarlets vs Munster (Parc Y Scarlets)
KO: 18:30 SA
Live On: SuperSport
Cardiff vs Emirates Lions (Cardiff Arms Park)
KO: 20:45 SA
Live On: SuperSport