There’s no South African involvement in the four EPCR semifinals that will be played this weekend but among the reasons for local interest should be the impact that the results might have on the decisive final rounds of the Vodacom URC leading into the knock-outs.
Leinster, as they have done since the competitions inception, or to put it more accurately the change of name from the PRO14 after the inclusion of the four South African teams, are the only team in the last four of the Investec Champions Cup flying the URC flag. Going deep in the elite European competition, with three appearances in the final and one defeat in a semifinal, has cost Leinster in the so-called primary competition in the past.
In 2022 their loss to the Vodacom Bulls in the URC semifinal at the RDS Arena came just a matter of days after the disappointment they suffered in the Champions Cup final in Marseille, where they were beaten off the last move of the game by La Rochelle. A year later they also lost narrowly to La Rochelle in the decider, this time at home at the AVIVA Stadium. And also lost at home to Munster when they went relatively under-strength in the URC semifinal.
Indeed, in the three years that Leinster made the European final, they lost in the URC semifinal round every time. Their other defeat, their second to the Bulls at that stage of the competition, came at Loftus in 2024 in the year they lost to Toulouse in extra time in the Champions Cup decider.
Last year, when they made the URC final and avenged the previous year’s defeat to the Bulls by winning comfortably in Dublin, they’d been knocked out unexpectedly in the Champions Cup semifinal by Northampton Saints. That forced them to focus exclusively on the URC after three seasons of not winning any silverware of any description.
NO SURPRISE LEINSTER URC SUCCESS COINCIDED WITH NOT MAKING FINAL
It may not be coincidental that the one taste Leinster have had of URC success came when they didn’t make the Champions Cup final, which is a good reason for the DHL Stormers, the Fidelity SecureDrive Lions and the Vodacom Bulls, all of whom are in contention for a top four finish on the URC log, to hope the Irish team prevail against Toulon in Dublin on Saturday.
Leinster have adopted a different approach to balancing up their URC and Champions Cup commitments this season in comparison with past seasons, which also strengthens the possibility that something will have to give with them at the business end of the season - if they are still involved in both.
Instead of resting his top players strategically in the URC since the end of the Guinness Six Nations, he has stuck largely with his first choice team in a quest to keep his top players battle hardened.
“In the past we’ve probably saved ourselves too much before a Champions Cup semifinal,” Leinster’s Ireland international hooker Dan Sheehan told the Irish rugby correspondent of The Times, Peter O’Reilly.
✨ It's showtime ✨
— Investec Champions Cup (@ChampionsCup) April 28, 2026
Who are you backing to make Bilbao? 👀#InvestecChampionsCup pic.twitter.com/hL3ngYxYfV
HAVING TO BATTLE FOR URC LOG POSITION MAY IMPACT TOO
Sheehan was talking before his team lost unexpectedly to Benetton in Treviso at the weekend, where coach Leo Cullen fielded the bulk of his first choice team. Benetton did well to come back from a big deficit, and Leinster were probably sitting back feeling they’d done their job and needed to conserve themselves for the Toulon game.
The loss to Northampton last year hurt Leinster badly and a big effort is being made to ensure Leinster are as hungry for his last but one game before the final as they know their underdog opponents (Northampton were underdogs last year and Toulon are this year) will be. But could it be that the tight struggle Leinster are now involved in to make the top four in the URC will make it doubly difficult for them to compete this season on both fronts?
Knowing Leinster, they will be prioritising the Champions Cup, but as Sheehan has pointed out, they also don’t have the buffer on the URC log that they have had in three of the four previous seasons where they comfortably finished top. The two losses they suffered in South Africa at the start of the URC has hurt their challenge, and although they have briefly flirted with top place on the log, they have generally been chasing.
Lovely hands from the lads last time out in the @ChampionsCup 😍
— Leinster Rugby (@leinsterrugby) April 27, 2026
See you this Saturday for more 🙌 #NeverLessThanEverything pic.twitter.com/FqLqxZOAAg
“The situation in the URC is different this year too,” said Sheehan. “We don’t have the option of sitting pretty at the top, almost guaranteed a home semifinal. We are battling on both fronts, and I think we can benefit from playing high intensity games with URC points on the line, while also getting good prep for Europe.”
Only Leinster will know if the loss to Benetton was useful to them, but there could be a counter-argument that their Treviso experience showed how difficult it will be to maintain a strong challenge across both the URC and the Champions Cup should they get past Toulon at the weekend. Lose to Toulon and it will be different - they will only have one competition then to focus on from here.
ULSTER WENT SECOND STRING AT MUNSTER TO PRIORITISE EPCR
Leinster are not the only URC contending Irish team playing in a semifinal this weekend. The EPCR Challenge Cup is the secondary European competition but Ulster gave some indication of how seriously they are taking it by going second string against Munster in what was seen as a crucial URC derby in Limerick last weekend.
Our @ChallengeCup_ journey so far 📈
— Ulster Rugby (@UlsterRugby) April 28, 2026
Big one this Saturday 👊
Get behind the team 🎟️ https://t.co/czSrlRsbCE pic.twitter.com/KIbJUnXNmq
Ulster delivered a creditable first half performance before being well beaten in the second but the point is that their focus was on Europe. Win their Challenge Cup semifinal against Exeter Chiefs on Saturday and what attitude and team will they take into next Friday’s key URC clash at Ravenshill against the Stormers?
The other URC team playing an EPCR semi is the Dragons, who warmed up for their trip to Montpellier with a close win over Zebre in Parma, but how they go will be of less interest to South African teams as they are not in contention in the URC.
Investec Champions Cup semifinals
Leinster v Toulon (Dublin, Saturday 4pm)
Bordeaux-Begles v Bath (Bordeaux, Sunday 4pm)
EPCR Challenge Cup semifinals
Ulster v Exeter (Belfast, Saturday 6:30pm)
Montpellier v Dragons (Montpellier 1:30pm)