The 2021–22 United Rugby Championship was the twenty-first season of the professional
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
competition originally known as the
Celtic League. It was the first season that the competition is referred to as the United Rugby Championship, having previously been known as the Pro14.
Sixteen teams competed in this season – four Irish teams:
Connacht
Connacht or Connaught ( ; or ), is the smallest of the four provinces of Ireland, situated in the west of Ireland. Until the ninth century it consisted of several independent major Gaelic kingdoms (Uí Fiachrach, Uí Briúin, Uí Maine, C ...
,
Leinster
Leinster ( ; or ) is one of the four provinces of Ireland, in the southeast of Ireland.
The modern province comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Meath, Leinster and Osraige, which existed during Gaelic Ireland. Following the 12th-century ...
,
Munster
Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...
and
Ulster
Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...
; two Italian teams:
Benetton and
Zebre Parma
Zebre Parma (, meaning "Zebras") are an Italian professional rugby union team competing in the United Rugby Championship and EPCR competitions from the 2012–13 season. They are based in Parma (Emilia-Romagna), Italy. They are operated by the ...
; two Scottish teams:
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
and
Glasgow Warriors
The Glasgow Warriors are a professional rugby union side from Scotland. The team plays in the United Rugby Championship league and in the European Professional Club Rugby tournaments. In the 2014–15 season they won the Pro12 title and beca ...
(with Scottish and Italian teams in a shared regional pool); four South African teams:
Bulls,
Lions
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large cat of the genus ''Panthera'', native to Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the tip of its tail. It is se ...
,
Sharks
Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...
and
Stormers
The Stormers (known for sponsorship reasons as the DHL Stormers) and the academic team DHL Stormers is a South African professional rugby union team based in Cape Town in the Western Cape that competes in the United Rugby Championship, a tra ...
; and four Welsh teams:
Cardiff
Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
,
Dragons
A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depict ...
,
Ospreys and
Scarlets
The Scarlets () are one of the four professional Welsh rugby union teams and are based in Llanelli, Wales. Their home ground is the Parc y Scarlets stadium. They play in the United Rugby Championship and in European Professional Club Rugby c ...
. It is the first season in which URC Regional Shields (Irish, Welsh, South African and Scottish-Italian) will be awarded as separate trophies to the leading sides in each nation or region.
Format
The tournament consisted of 18 rounds. There are four regional pools: The Irish Shield pool (featuring the four Irish teams), the Welsh Shield pool (featuring the four Welsh teams), the South African Shield pool (featuring the four South African teams) and the Scottish/Italian 'Azzurri/Blue' Shield pool (featuring the two Italian and two Scottish sides). Teams play six matches against their regional pool rivals home and away. The remaining twelve matches are made up by a single round robin, consisting of an even number of six home and six away matches against all the sides from the other pools.
There is only one main league table (the conference system used in previous Pro14 years has been dropped). The top eight sides in the table will qualify for the quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals and a grand final, with teams seeded 1 to 4 with home advantage for the lowest seeded side.
A total of eight sides qualified for the following season's
European Rugby Champions Cup, while the remaining eight sides will play in the
EPCR Challenge Cup
The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception i ...
. All points won in the competition contributed to rankings in the regional pools, with the top side in each regional pool automatically qualifying for the European Rugby Champions Cup. The remaining four places went then go to the highest ranked teams in the main table (who haven't already qualified). A similar format was used to determine playoff contenders in the
Super Rugby
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
competition. This will see the South African sides in the competition qualifying for a European competition for the first time (subject to finalisation of contract terms), as previous South African participants – the
Cheetahs
The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat and the fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, with a short snout and blac ...
and
Southern Kings
The Southern Kings were a South African professional rugby union team that competed in Super Rugby and Pro14. They were based in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province and played their home matches at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium. They w ...
– were ineligible for European competitions.
Teams
United Rugby Championship
Locations
Tables
URC – Regional Shields Pools Tables
The Regional Shield pools of the regular season are the primary mechanism by which teams qualify for European competition, with the 'Shield winner' of each regional pool guaranteed qualification for the European Rugby Champions Cup, ensuring at least one South African, one Welsh and one Irish side qualify for the premier European competition. As Scotland and Italy are sharing a single regional pool, at least one team from those two countries combined is also guaranteed entry, but neither country individually is so guaranteed.
The remaining four places will be awarded to those with the four best overall regular season records, regardless of which pool they take part in. As such, it is possible that a team will qualify for the ERCC without reaching the URC play-offs by topping its pool, but finishing ninth or lower overall; conversely, it is also possible that a team could win the entire URC championship from seventh or eighth seed in the overall championship table, but fail to qualify for the ERCC because teams below them topped their respective pools. Since each pool has only four teams, this means in effect that the top 6 in the overall table are guaranteed entry into the Champions Cup, with the final two places dependent on the placement of the two lowest ranked pool shield winners.
United Rugby Championship table
The overall United Rugby Championship table is the central pillar of the regular season, and the mechanism by which the teams qualifying for the Championship play-off bracket are decided. The top eight teams in the table at the end of the regular season, regardless of regional pool, qualify for the play-off quarter-finals, seeded in the order they finished the regular season.
The overall table also provides the secondary path to qualification for the
European Rugby Champions Cup, with the four highest-ranked teams not already qualified as Shield winners gaining qualification.
Regular season
Round 1
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Round 2
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Round 3
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Round 4
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Round 5
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Round 6
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Round 7
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Round 8
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Round 9
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Round 10
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Round 11
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Round 12
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Round 13
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Round 14
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Round 15
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Round 16
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Round 17
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Round 18
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Play-offs
Bracket
The play-off draw was seeded by final finishing position in the regular season table
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Championship final
The first United Rugby Championship Final was an all-South African derby, ensuring the first ever South African winner of the tournament, the
Bulls having narrowly missed out on winning the transitional
Pro14 Rainbow Cup competition. It also marked the first time in the history of the competition that a Grand final play-off match has not included at least one Irish province, a run of 14 finals.
Attendances by club
Highest attendances
End of Season Awards
URC Dream Team
The 2021–22 United Rugby Championship Dream team is:
Award winners
The 2021–22 URC award winners were:
Leading scorers
Note: Flags to the left of player names indicate national team as has been defined under
World Rugby
World Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international competit ...
eligibility rules, or primary nationality for players who have not yet earned international senior caps. Players may hold one or more non-WR nationalities.
Most points
Most tries
Referees
The following referees have officiated at least one match during the 2021–22 season. Numbers in brackets denote the number of matches officiated during 2021–22. Correct as on fixtures played on 18 June 2022.
*
Andrew Brace (14)
*
Frank Murphy
William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer, and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving ...
(14)
*
Chris Busby (13)
*
Craig Evans (11)
*
Sam Grove-White (10)
*
Adam Jones (10)
*
Andrea Piardi (10)
*
Ben Whitehouse (10)
*
Ben Blain (9)
*
Mike Adamson (8)
*
Gianluca Gnecchi (7)
*
Jaco Peyper (7)
*
Marius van der Westhuizen
Marius van der Westhuizen (born 6 January 1984) is a South African professional rugby union referee, currently on the Premier Panel of the South African Rugby Referees' Association.
Early career
Van Der Westhuizen was born in Cape Town, South A ...
(7)
*
AJ Jacobs (5)
*
Hollie Davidson (3)
*
Nika Amashukeli (2)
*
Aimee Barrett-Theron (2)
*
Rasta Rasivhenge
Fhatuwani 'Rasta' Rasivhenge (born in Johannesburg on 3 January 1986) is a South African rugby union referee who is a member of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) Premier Panel.
He was appointed to referee the final of the rugby sevens tournam ...
(2)
*
Nic Berry (1)
*
Pierre Brousset (1)
*
Eoghan Cross (1)
*
Joy Neville (1)
* Gareth Newman (1)
*
Christophe Ridley (1)
*
Tual Trainini (1)
References
Notes
External links
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:United Rugby Championship
2021–22 in European rugby union leagues
2021-22
2021–22 in Irish rugby union
2021–22 in Italian rugby union
2021–22 in Scottish rugby union
2021–22 in Welsh rugby union
2021 in South African rugby union
2022 in South African rugby union