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Round one was a good weekend for South African and Scottish rugby. The Irish provinces might have enjoyed it rather less. All four South African sides won, Glasgow and Edinburgh picked up victories on Irish soil, and the defending champions were beaten by a point in Johannesburg. Nobody needs to start panicking after one game, but the fixtures haven’t exactly handed Leinster, Munster or Ulster a gentle route back. There is also another Welsh derby, a good opportunity for Cardiff and a meeting between Edinburgh and the Stormers that looks well worth your attention.
An away derby win followed by Zebre at home is a start Cardiff will be happy enough with. Now they need to make the most of it. Cardiff have lost only once in their last 13 matches at the Arms Park and are unbeaten in their last eight meetings with Zebre. The visitors arrive after a 47–13 defeat to the Bulls, their sixth successive URC loss. There is no great mystery about where the expectation sits. There is still a reason not to get ahead of themselves, though. Cardiff have won their opening two fixtures in only one of the previous five URC seasons, and their last home meeting with Zebre finished a fairly tight 22–17. Evan Lloyd, Dan Thomas and Taine Basham supplied the tries against the Scarlets. Another win would turn a good derby result into a useful start to the season. For Zebre, the first job is to make Cardiff work considerably harder than the Bulls had to.
Both sides collected five points away from home last weekend, which makes this more interesting than a straightforward home-versus-away argument. Edinburgh won in Belfast, with James Grayson contributing 14 points and four different players crossing for tries. The Stormers also had four try-scorers in their victory at Connacht. Both have something to build on, and neither is arriving here looking to repair an opening-round defeat. The Stormers generally do well against Edinburgh. Scotland itself has been rather less accommodating. They have never won on six previous visits, and their last trip to the Hive ended in a 38–7 defeat in October 2024. That is Edinburgh’s only victory in six meetings between the clubs, but it was hardly a narrow escape. For the Stormers, another win would mean consecutive URC away victories for the first time since November 2025. For Edinburgh, beating a second strong opponent in a week would give their opening result a bit more weight. This could be the pick of Friday’s three games.
Benetton get another chance to make home advantage count after drawing with the Dragons. Connacht, beaten at home by the Stormers, are looking for their first points as well as their first win. Recent history suggests the venue matters here. The home side has won each of the last six meetings, and Connacht have not won at Monigo since April 2022. Benetton have also lost only once in their last five URC matches at the ground. The catch is their wider form: just one victory in their last six league games. Being difficult to beat at home is useful, but Benetton could do with turning that into more wins. Mack Hansen and Josh Ioane crossed against the Stormers, giving Connacht something to take from an otherwise disappointing opener. They now need to avoid a third successive URC defeat. Neither side will be treating this as a season-defining game, but another weekend without a win would leave both with more questions than they would like.
The Lions have done the eye-catching bit. Beating Leinster 27–26 is an excellent opening result. Making it two wins from two would be more useful than spending another week talking about it. Their home record gives them every reason to believe they can. They lost only once at Ellis Park during last season’s URC campaign, while Erich Cronje’s two tries and Chris Smith’s 12 points helped get this one started properly. Ospreys should not be written off on the strength of those numbers, though. Their last visit ended in a 29–28 defeat, and January’s meeting in Wales finished 24–24. There has been very little between these sides recently. Four tries against the Sharks also showed that Ospreys could find their way over the line, even if the reward was only a bonus point. They have not won in South Africa since April 2024, so this would be a useful time to change that. Luke Morgan, one of last weekend’s scorers, would reach 100 URC appearances if he features.
The Dragons are unbeaten in two, which sounds better before you mention that both were draws. Their 19–19 result at Benetton followed the 35–35 finish against the Scarlets at the end of last season. There is encouragement in avoiding defeat, particularly away from home, but one victory in ten URC games explains why a win would be rather more welcome. The Scarlets cannot offer much of a counterargument. They also have one win from their last ten league matches, and defeat to Cardiff extended their run without a Welsh Shield victory to six games. The Dragons won January’s Rodney Parade meeting 28–5 before the teams shared ten tries in May. Those were two very different contests, and neither side particularly needs another afternoon that provides plenty of entertainment without a win. For the Scarlets, losing successive derbies would make an already awkward opening to the season harder to enjoy. For the Dragons, this is a chance to turn the positives from Treviso into something more convincing.
The Sharks have won eight of their last nine URC matches at Kings Park. Leinster have won the last five meetings between these clubs. There is a statistic available for whichever side you support. Leinster’s wider South African record is less comfortable: one win from their last nine visits. Unfortunately for the Sharks, that one came here, when the visitors edged a 10–7 contest in March 2025. The hosts opened this season with a bonus-point victory over Ospreys, with Luan Giliomee scoring twice and Vusi Moyo adding 14 points. Leinster got a hat-trick from Fintan Gunne in Johannesburg and still ended up on the wrong side of a one-point result. That is hardly grounds for a crisis, but the champions will not want their tour to become a collection of decent individual performances without a win. For the Sharks, this is an opportunity to do more than start two from two. Their home form is already strong. Beating a side that has repeatedly found a way past them would be a much more interesting development.
After losing to Edinburgh at home, Ulster now get Glasgow away. The fixture list has not offered much sympathy. Glasgow return to Scotstoun after winning 26–20 at Munster, with Jamie Dobie scoring twice and George Horne contributing 11 points. Their only home defeat in any competition last season came against Toulon in the European quarter-final. Winning at Thomond Park and then coming back to a ground where they are so rarely beaten is a very decent place to start. Ulster have won just once at Scotstoun since 2016, and their only victory in their last seven matches across all competitions came against Exeter in the Challenge Cup semi-final. They did score four tries and collect two bonus points against Edinburgh. There was something there, but the next step has to be turning those scoring contributions into a winning performance. Glasgow also won the most recent meeting in Belfast in May. Ulster have plenty to change here, not just last weekend’s result.
Munster get another chance at home. They also get the Bulls, which makes the first bit sound slightly less reassuring. The visitors started with a 47–13 win at Zebre and have won their last three meetings with Munster. The most recent was a 45–14 quarter-final victory at Loftus Versfeld in May. Reinhardt Ludwig’s opening-round double helped get them moving again, and their only defeat in their last ten URC matches came in the Grand Final against Leinster. There is enough there to make Munster wary, but the quarter-final should not be allowed to explain the entire fixture. The previous two meetings were decided by three points, including the Bulls’ 16–13 win at Thomond Park in April 2025. The Bulls have also won just once on their last four visits to Ireland. Their recent form is strong, but another away victory is not a formality. Munster’s defeat to Glasgow ended a run of three successive home league wins. They need to start another run rather than allow two opening home fixtures to pass without a victory. For the Bulls, winning in Limerick would tell us considerably more than their comfortable opening afternoon in Parma.
Durban will get plenty of attention, and rightly so, but Edinburgh against the Stormers could be every bit as revealing. By the time Munster and the Bulls finish on Saturday night, we should have a better idea of who has genuinely started well and who simply had a good first weekend.
