{"id":204327,"date":"2025-11-28T06:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T06:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/204327\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T06:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T06:31:10","slug":"predictions-teams-kick-off-times-how-to-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/204327\/","title":{"rendered":"Predictions, teams, kick-off times, how to watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Rugby Championship (URC) season gets back underway on Friday with two games before there\u2019s another six on Saturday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the team news, match officials and how to watch the action.<\/p>\n

Friday<\/b><\/p>\n

Ulster v Benetton<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> Ulster by 6<\/p>\n

Ulster:<\/b> 15 Jacob Stockdale, 14 Rob Baloucoune, 13 James Hume, 12 Jude Postlethwaite, 11 Werner Kok, 10 Jack Murphy, 9 Nathan Doak, 8 Juarno Augustus, 7 Nick Timoney, 6 David McCann, 5 Iain Henderson, 4 Harry Sheridan, 3 Scott Wilson, 2 Tom Stewart, 1 Sam Crean
Replacements:<\/b> 16 Rob Herring, 17 Callum Reid, 18 Tom O\u2019Toole, 19 Matthew Dalton, 20 Bryn Ward, 21 David Shanahan, 22 Jake Flannery, 23 Stewart Moore<\/p>\n

Benetton:<\/b> 15 Rhyno Smith, 14 Onisi Ratave, 13 Paolo Odogwu, 12 Filippo Drago, 11 Ignacio Mendy, 10 Jacob Umaga, 9 Andy Uren, 8 So\u2019otala Fa\u2019aso\u2019o, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Jadin Kingi, 5 Eli Snyman, 4 Federico Ruzza, 3 Giosu\u00e9 Zilocchi, 2 Bautista Bernasconi, 1 Destiny Aminu
Replacements:<\/b> 16 Nicholas Gasperini, 17 Nahuel Tetaz Chaparro, 18 Marcos Gallorini, 19 Giulio Marini, 20 Alessandro Izekor, 21 John Bryant, 22 Louis Werchon, 23 Leonardo Marin<\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Affidea Stadium, Belfast
Kick-off:<\/b> 19.45 IRE & UK \/ 20.45 ITA \/ 21.45 SA
Referee:<\/b> Sam Grove-White (SRU, 56th league game)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Robbie Jenkinson (IRFU), Max Weston (IRFU)
TMO:<\/b> David Sutherland (SRU)
Live on:<\/b> Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv<\/p>\n

Dragons v Leinster<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> Leinster by 18<\/p>\n

Dragons:<\/b> 15 Angus O\u2019Brien (c), 14 Cai Evans, 13 David Richards, 12 Aneurin Owen, 11 Huw Anderson, 10 Tinus de Beer, 9 Rhodri Williams, 8 Mackenzie Martin, 7 Thomas Young, 6 Ryan Woodman, 5 Matthew Screech, 4 Seb Davies, 3 Robert Hunt, 2 Oli Burrows, 1 Dylan Kelleher-Griffiths
Replacements:<\/b> 16 Will Austin, 17 Wyn Jones, 18 Owain James, 19 Levi Douglas, 20 Shane Lewis-Hughes, 21 Niall Armstrong, 22 Joe Westwood, 23 Ewan Rosser<\/p>\n

Leinster:<\/b> 15 Jimmy O\u2019Brien, 14 Joshua Kenny, 13 Hugh Cooney, 12 Ciar\u00e1n Frawley, 11 Jordan Larmour, 10 Harry Byrne, 9 Fintan Gunne, 8 Max Deegan (c), 7 Scott Penny, 6 Alex Soroka, 5 Diarmuid Mangan, 4 Brian Deeny, 3 Thomas Clarkson, 2 Gus McCarthy, 1 Jack Boyle
Replacements:<\/b> 16 John McKee, 17 Jerry Cahir, 18 Rabah Slimani, 19 RG Snyman, 20 Josh Ericson, 21 Luke McGrath, 22 Charlie Tector, 23 Ruben Moloney<\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Rodney Parade, Newport
Kick-off:<\/b> 19.45 IRE & UK \/ 20.45 ITA \/ 21.45 SA
Referee:<\/b> Morne Ferreira (SARU, 19th league game)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Craig Evans (WRU), Lucas Yendle (WRU)
TMO:<\/b> Chris Allison (SARU)
Live on:<\/b> Premier Sports, TG4, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv<\/p>\n

Saturday<\/b><\/p>\n

Bulls v Lions<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> TBC<\/p>\n

Bulls:<\/b> 15 Willie le Roux, 14 Sebastian de Klerk, 13 David Kriel, 12 Jan Serfontein, 11 Stravino Jacobs, 10 Keagan Johannes, 9 Embrose Papier, 8 JJ Theron, 7 Reinhardt Ludwig (c), 6 Jeandre Rudolph, 5 JF van Heerden, 4 Jaco Grobbelaar, 3 Francois Klopper, 2 Akker van der Merwe, 1 Alu Tshakweni
Replacements:<\/b> 16 Jean Else, 17 Sti Sithole, 18 Mornay Smith, 19 Cobus Wiese, 20 Elrigh Louw, 21 Paul de Wet, 22 Stedman Gans, 23 Cheswill Jooste<\/p>\n

Lions:<\/b><\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria
Kick-off:<\/b> 12.00 IRE & UK \/ 13.00 ITA \/ 14.00 SA
Referee:<\/b> Aimee Barrett-Theron (SARU, 12th league game)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Griffin Colby (SARU), Sean Muller (SARU)
TMO:<\/b> Quinton Immelman (SARU)
Live on:<\/b> SuperSport, Premier Sports, TG4, Flo Rugby & URC.tv<\/p>\n

Johnny Sexton: Rieko Ioane has \u2018a big responsibility\u2019 at Leinster as Ireland legend issues pointed \u2018good people\u2019 comment<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Zebre Parma v Cardiff<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> TBC<\/p>\n

Zebre Parma:<\/b><\/p>\n

Cardiff:<\/b><\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Stadio Lanfranchi, Parma
Kick-off:<\/b> 13.00 IRE & UK \/ 14.00 ITA \/ 15.00 SA
Referee:<\/b> Marius van der Westhuizen (SARU, 27th league game)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Russo Filippo (FIR), Riccardo Angelucci (FIR)
TMO:<\/b> Colin Brett (SRU)
Live on:<\/b> Sky Italia, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv<\/p>\n

Munster v Stormers<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> TBC<\/p>\n

Munster:<\/b> 15 Shane Daly, 14 Diarmuid Kilgallen, 13 Tom Farrell, 12 Alex Nankivell, 11 Thaakir Abrahams, 10 Jack Crowley, 9 Craig Casey, 8 Gavin Coombes, 7 Jack O\u2019Donoghue, 6 Tadhg Beirne (c), 5 Fineen Wycherley, 4 Tom Ahern, 3 John Ryan, 2 Diarmuid Barron, 1 Jeremy Loughman
Replacements:<\/b> 16 Niall Scannell, 17 Michael Milne, 18 Ronan Foxe, 19 Edwin Edogbo, 20 John Hodnett, 21 Ethan Coughlan, 22 Tony Butler, 23 Dan Kelly<\/p>\n

Stormers:<\/b><\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Thomond Park, Limerick
Kick-off:<\/b> 17.30 IRE & UK \/ 18.30 ITA \/ 19.30 SA
Referee:<\/b> Andrea Piardi (FIR, 58th league game)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Andrew Cole (IRFU), Andrew Fogarty (IRFU)
TMO:<\/b> Matteo Liperini (FIR)
Live on:<\/b> Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv<\/p>\n

Edinburgh v Ospreys<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> TBC<\/p>\n

Edinburgh:<\/b><\/p>\n

Ospreys:<\/b><\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Hive Stadium, Edinburgh
Kick-off:<\/b> 17.30 IRE & UK \/ 18.30 ITA \/ 19.30 SA
Referee:<\/b> Peter Martin (IRFU, 9th league game)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Finlay Brown (SRU), Ciaran Stark (SRU)
TMO:<\/b> Brian McNeice (IRFU)
Live on:<\/b> Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv<\/p>\n

James Ryan learns ban fate after thuggish hit on Malcolm Marx<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

Connacht v Sharks<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> TBC<\/p>\n

Connacht:<\/b><\/p>\n

Sharks:<\/b><\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Dexcom Stadium, Galway
Kick-off:<\/b> 19.45 IRE & UK \/ 20.45 ITA \/ 21.45 SA
Referee:<\/b> Ben Breakspear (WRU, 14th league game)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Andrew Brace (IRFU), Jack MacNeice (IRFU)
TMO:<\/b> Keith David (WRU)
Live on:<\/b> TG4, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv<\/p>\n

Scarlets v Glasgow Warriors<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> TBC<\/p>\n

Scarlets:<\/b><\/p>\n

Glasgow Warriors:<\/b><\/p>\n

Venue:<\/b> Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli
Kick-off:<\/b> 19.45 IRE & UK \/ 20.45 ITA \/ 21.45 SA
Referee:<\/b> Chris Allison (SARU, 5th league game)
Assistant Referees:<\/b> Ben Whitehouse (WRU), Adam Jones (WRU)
TMO:<\/b> Morne Ferreira (SARU)
Live on:<\/b> S4C, Premier Sports, SuperSport, Flo Rugby & URC.tv<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Irish province leads the race for highly sought-after Springboks front rower\u2019s signature<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Rugby Championship (URC) season gets back underway on Friday with two games before there\u2019s another six…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[112481,61008,44561,71791,85824,5882,18,112482,794,19,17,38909,22360,5599,5,112483,112484,15057,132,112485,41016,42271,112486],"class_list":{"0":"post-204327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-benetton-treviso","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-cardiff-rugby","11":"tag-connacht","12":"tag-dragons","13":"tag-edinburgh","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-glasgow-warriors","16":"tag-home-page","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-leinster","20":"tag-lions","21":"tag-munster","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-ospreys","24":"tag-scarlets","25":"tag-sharks","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-stormers","28":"tag-ulster","29":"tag-united-rugby-championship","30":"tag-zebre"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115625925112408261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}