{"id":445908,"date":"2026-01-29T21:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445908\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T21:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:06:07","slug":"3-must-watch-matches-from-united-rugby-championship-round-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/445908\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Must-Watch Matches From United Rugby Championship Round 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

The United Rugby Championship<\/a> plays one more round of matches before entering its Six Nations\u2013induced hiatus in February, and the landscape of the competition could look very different after this weekend.<\/p>\n

Round 11 is the final round until Feb. 27, as teams lose many of their top European internationals to the Six Nations\u00a0<\/a>and Rugby Europe competitions.\u00a0Rugby Europe<\/a> \u2014 headlined by Georgia, Romania and Spain \u2014 will stream live in the United States on FloRugby.<\/p>\n

Round 10 brought change at the top of the URC table, with the Glasgow Warriors \u2014 the No. 1 club team in the world at the moment \u2014 taking advantage of the DHL Stormers\u2019 surprising loss to the Hollywoodbets Sharks. The Stormers were 8-0-0 entering Round 10. The Warriors, now 8-0-2, hold a three-point lead in the standings<\/p>\n

But as much as the race to the top matters, the sprint to the top eight is just as important. Now squarely in the second half of the season, teams are pushing to make the playoffs and qualify for the Investec Champions Cup<\/a> field for the 2026\u201327 season.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s quite a match on that spectrum in Round 11.<\/p>\n

Unlike European clubs, South African squads don\u2019t have to worry much about international windows across February and March. Taking advantage of a weakened league, though, is paramount. The Bulls, Sharks, Lions and Stormers are set for more derbies this week. The Sharks host the Stormers, and the Lions host the Bulls in the FloRugby Match of the Week.<\/p>\n

Round 12, starting Feb. 27, will feature Lions vs. Stormers and Sharks vs. Bulls, followed by another month-long hiatus. Whichever club finishes with the best record in the South Africa Shield after these rounds will not only win the shield, but will likely be safely in the playoff field.<\/p>\n

Here are three must-watch, can\u2019t-miss, appointment-viewing matches in the United Rugby Championship in Round 11.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Glasgow Warriors vs. Munster Rugby: 3:45 p.m. ET, Friday, Jan. 30 \u2014 Scotstoun Stadium<\/p>\n

If the Warriors are going to lose at Scotstoun Stadium, it might be when Gregor Townsend has their top players in national camp. Munster Rugby \u2014 in a rut after missing the Champions Cup Round of 16 and needing a huge rally to beat the Dragons in Round 10 \u2014 may actually be in better shape from an availability standpoint.<\/p>\n

Sione Tuipulotu and Glasgow Warriors captain Kyle Steyn are among the notable absences for the Warriors. However, Kyle Rowe and Angus Fraser are in the lineup. Munster, meanwhile, will have Thaakir Abrahams, Oli Jager and Brian Gleeson available.<\/p>\n

A Munster win opens the door for a new table leader.<\/p>\n

Emirates Lions vs. Vodacom Bulls: 8:30 a.m. ET, Saturday, Jan. 31 \u2014 Ellis Park<\/p>\n

This is the\u00a0FloRugby Match of the Week<\/a>. We broke down this Jukskei Derby earlier in the week, but the gist is simple: the Lions \u2014 one of the surprise teams in rugby this season \u2014 face one of their biggest matches of the year, one that could push them further up the table.<\/p>\n

The Lions have never qualified for the Champions Cup, meaning they\u2019ve never reached the URC playoffs. The Bulls, meanwhile, have won two straight matches after snapping a seven-match losing streak, including a Champions Cup win over Pau that secured a Round of 16 berth.<\/p>\n

Hollywoodbets Sharks vs. DHL Stormers: 11 a.m. ET, Saturday, Jan. 31 \u2014 Hollywoodbets Kings Park<\/p>\n

Last week, the Sharks did something no URC club had done this season: beat the DHL Stormers. And it wasn\u2019t a last-minute shocker. The Sharks won 30-19 and led almost the entire match.<\/p>\n

Siya Kolisi \u2014 who will join the Stormers at the end of the season \u2014 was excellent for the Sharks. In a smart scheduling quirk, the two clubs meet again, this time in Durban.<\/p>\n

This match will test the Stormers\u2019 ability to bounce back and show whether the Sharks\u2019 Round 10 win was the start of a climb up the table \u2014 or a one-week outlier.<\/p>\n

Subscribe To Watch Rugby All Year Long With A FloRugby Annual Subscription<\/p>\n

A FloRugby annual subscription includes live and on-demand access to the United Rugby Championship, Investec Champions Cup, EPCR Challenge Cup, PREM Rugby and more across FloRugby and the FloSports app.<\/p>\n

How To Watch Rugby Matches In The United States On FloRugby<\/p>\n

Professional club rugby in Europe all streams on FloRugby and the FloSports app in the United States. FloRugby and FloSports also are the U.S. home to:\u00a0<\/p>\n

FloRugby also is home to match archives and match replays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Join The Rugby Conversation On FloRugby Social<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Rugby Championship plays one more round of matches before entering its Six Nations\u2013induced hiatus in February,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-445908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}