mens
United-rugby-championship
The United Rugby Championship (URC) has decided to push back the deadline for announcing squads for the upcoming 2026/27 season to 2pm (UK time) on Thursday.
“Rather than Friday and Saturday teams being announced on separate days, all 16 teams will now operate on a coordinated Thursday schedule. For Friday games, the schedule remains largely unchanged, while teams playing on Saturday and Sunday will generally be announced around 48 hours before kick-off, rather than 24 hours,” the URC said in a statement.
Previously this might have been considered a minor, insignificant change, but the protocol surrounding team announcements was hotly debated during Rugby’s Greatest Rivalry Series (RGRS) between South Africa and New Zealand.
Springboks boss Rassie Erasmus has shaken things up ahead of the second Test against All black people in Cape Town by naming his squad as usual on Monday, before making a series of changes as the week progressed, right up to an hour before kick-off.
As the series was not a World Rugby competition or overseen by SANZAAR, this allowed Erasmus to break convention and ignore the usual Test match practice of naming teams at least 48 hours before kick-off, with changes only allowed due to injury.
Citing the change in weather conditions, Erasmus changed his entire front row, benching Ox Nche, Malcolm Marx and Wilco Louw, and starting his original replacements, Gerhard Steenekamp, Deon Fourie and Thomas Du Toit.
The week before, he delayed his team announcement by three days, which he said was a sign of respect for the All Blacks.
“It’s out of respect for New Zealand, knowing how tough this one is going to be. For this one in particular, the less time they have to prepare for our team, the better,” Erasmus said at the time.
While Erasmus’ fiddling could be characterized as a tactical ploy, URC’s motivation behind the deadline change is to look more closely at the league.
URC chiefs hope the trial will help create a longer period for the media, such as broadcast partner Premier Sports, to build stories around the games and increase hype, while also helping the 16 participating clubs change tickets.
The 2026/27 URC season begins next Friday, September 25, with games in between Connacht and Stormers, Benetton and Dragons and Ulster and Edinburgh.
Champions Leinster they begin their title defense the next day in Johannesburg against the Lions in the first of five games on Saturday.
In the remaining matches, Sharks the Ospreys are at home, Munster entertain Glasgow probably in match selection, Zebras against the Bulls, before the Welsh derby between them Scarlets and Cardiff brings the first round to an end.
