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United Rugby Championship
The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in South Africa, and the BKT United Rugby Championship in the competition's other territories, the split branding mirroring the format previously adopted in Super Rugby. The Championship represents the highest level of domestic club or franchise rugby in each of its constituent countries.
The Championship is one of the three major professional leagues in Europe (along with the English Premiership and the French Top 14), the most successful teams from which go forward to compete in the highest-level continental club competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. Since 2022–23 South African teams have been eligible to qualify for European competitions.
The tournament has had a number of names as it has grown, both organisationally and because of sponsors. The current name for the tournament was adopted in 2021, when the league expanded to include four South African teams previously from the SANZAR Super Rugby competition and both sets of naming rights, BKT and Vodacom, were added in the 2022–23 season.
The genesis of the League can be traced to 1999 when two Scottish districts joined the professional Welsh Premier Division, creating the Welsh–Scottish League, which does not form part of the continuity of the competition known as URC, but is the acknowledged precursor to it. When the Welsh-Scottish league was disbanded to create a similar competition with the provincial clubs from Ireland three years later, the new competition became known as the Celtic League The league was sponsored by Irish cider makers Magners from the 2006–07 season until 2010–11, and was referred to as the Magners League (or in the Republic of Ireland the Bulmer's League as the same sponsor traded under a different name there). At the start of the 2010–11 season, the league expanded from 10 to 12 teams, by adding two Italian teams, the first step outside the Celtic nations who had formed the league.
Following the end of Magners' sponsorship, the league adopted a Pro12 branding to acknowledge the move beyond the Celtic nations, with RaboDirect coming on board as naming sponsor of the Rabobank Pro12 from 2011–12 through to 2013–14. A further expansion to 14 teams (and the subsequent renaming to Pro14) took place from the 2017–18 season, with two South African teams not competing in the Super rugby competition joining the Championship until the 2019–20 season. The sponsorship deal with Guinness began at the beginning of the 2014–15 season as the Guinness Pro14, and concluded after the Guinness Pro14 Rainbow Cup in July 2021. Following the arrival of the four South African Super Rugby franchises (and the departure of the two existing South African teams) a further rebranding to the United Rugby Championship (or the URC for short) occurred, while the league formed a new partnership with Roc Nation. BKT and Vodacom secured naming rights the following season.
The URC trophy is named 'The Array', and was made in collaboration between British silversmiths Thomas Lyte, and design agency, Matter, in 2022. While the trophy's official name is 'The Array', it is also affectionately nicknamed 'the Beast' as it weighs around 20 kg (44 lb), making it the heaviest trophy in club rugby. It stands 68 cm tall.
As of the introduction of the United Rugby Championship in 2021–22, the championship season has broadly had a consistent format. It takes place between September and May, with teams split into four regional pools: The Irish Shield pool, the Welsh Shield pool, the South African Shield pool and the Scottish and Italian Shield pool for the purpose of 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, alternating annually). 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. Championship points are awarded using the bonus points system; 4 points for a win and 2 for a draw. Bonus points can be earned so long as teams either score four or more tries in a game or lose by seven points or fewer – should a team do both, two bonus points are gained.
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United Rugby Championship
The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in South Africa, and the BKT United Rugby Championship in the competition's other territories, the split branding mirroring the format previously adopted in Super Rugby. The Championship represents the highest level of domestic club or franchise rugby in each of its constituent countries.
The Championship is one of the three major professional leagues in Europe (along with the English Premiership and the French Top 14), the most successful teams from which go forward to compete in the highest-level continental club competitions, the European Rugby Champions Cup and Challenge Cup. Since 2022–23 South African teams have been eligible to qualify for European competitions.
The tournament has had a number of names as it has grown, both organisationally and because of sponsors. The current name for the tournament was adopted in 2021, when the league expanded to include four South African teams previously from the SANZAR Super Rugby competition and both sets of naming rights, BKT and Vodacom, were added in the 2022–23 season.
The genesis of the League can be traced to 1999 when two Scottish districts joined the professional Welsh Premier Division, creating the Welsh–Scottish League, which does not form part of the continuity of the competition known as URC, but is the acknowledged precursor to it. When the Welsh-Scottish league was disbanded to create a similar competition with the provincial clubs from Ireland three years later, the new competition became known as the Celtic League The league was sponsored by Irish cider makers Magners from the 2006–07 season until 2010–11, and was referred to as the Magners League (or in the Republic of Ireland the Bulmer's League as the same sponsor traded under a different name there). At the start of the 2010–11 season, the league expanded from 10 to 12 teams, by adding two Italian teams, the first step outside the Celtic nations who had formed the league.
Following the end of Magners' sponsorship, the league adopted a Pro12 branding to acknowledge the move beyond the Celtic nations, with RaboDirect coming on board as naming sponsor of the Rabobank Pro12 from 2011–12 through to 2013–14. A further expansion to 14 teams (and the subsequent renaming to Pro14) took place from the 2017–18 season, with two South African teams not competing in the Super rugby competition joining the Championship until the 2019–20 season. The sponsorship deal with Guinness began at the beginning of the 2014–15 season as the Guinness Pro14, and concluded after the Guinness Pro14 Rainbow Cup in July 2021. Following the arrival of the four South African Super Rugby franchises (and the departure of the two existing South African teams) a further rebranding to the United Rugby Championship (or the URC for short) occurred, while the league formed a new partnership with Roc Nation. BKT and Vodacom secured naming rights the following season.
The URC trophy is named 'The Array', and was made in collaboration between British silversmiths Thomas Lyte, and design agency, Matter, in 2022. While the trophy's official name is 'The Array', it is also affectionately nicknamed 'the Beast' as it weighs around 20 kg (44 lb), making it the heaviest trophy in club rugby. It stands 68 cm tall.
As of the introduction of the United Rugby Championship in 2021–22, the championship season has broadly had a consistent format. It takes place between September and May, with teams split into four regional pools: The Irish Shield pool, the Welsh Shield pool, the South African Shield pool and the Scottish and Italian Shield pool for the purpose of 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, alternating annually). 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. Championship points are awarded using the bonus points system; 4 points for a win and 2 for a draw. Bonus points can be earned so long as teams either score four or more tries in a game or lose by seven points or fewer – should a team do both, two bonus points are gained.