{"id":454430,"date":"2026-05-18T06:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/454430\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T06:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T06:07:12","slug":"three-irish-provinces-on-the-dance-card-for-urc-quarter-final-fandango-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/454430\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Irish provinces on the dance card for URC quarter-final fandango \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

And then there were eight \u2013 including three Irish provinces: Leinster<\/a>, Munster<\/a> and Connacht<\/a> \u2013 on the URC\u2019s quarter-final dance card. A point of clarification: if Ulster beat Montpellier in the Challenge Cup<\/a> final in the San Mam\u00e9s Stadium next Friday night they will appropriate Connacht\u2019s place in next season\u2019s Champions Cup but not in the URC<\/a> playoffs.<\/p>\n

There is a rider. If Connacht win the URC and Ulster the Challenge Cup, Connacht will qualify for next season\u2019s Champions Cup, and in that scenario the seventh-placed side in the URC, the Lions, would miss out.<\/p>\n

Munster could have taken Connacht out of the \u201cbubble\u201d position of eighth place if they had kicked a late penalty to deny the Lions a losing bonus point. The South African side would then have dropped to eighth, with Connacht in seventh.<\/p>\n

Stuart Lancaster\u2019s Connacht will return to Scotland in the quarter-finals \u2013 they beat Edinburgh on Friday night \u2013 to take on the number one seeds the Glasgow Warriors in the quarter-final. <\/p>\n

Munster\u2019s priority, understandably, was to remove any possibility of an adverse outcome, ostensibly if the kick struck an upright, remained in play, and was regathered by the Lions, who went the length of the pitch and scored. Unlikely but not impossible.<\/p>\n

\"Munster'sMunster’s JJ Hanrahan in action during the URC match between Munster and Lions in Thomond Park. Photograph: Bryan Keane\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Clayton McMillan\u2019s side showed their traditional resilience in adversity, at one point down to 13 players, with Andrew Smith and Alex Nankivell in the sin bin, to forge a 24-17 victory. They lost Jack Crowley to injury before the game, but JJ Hanrahan proved an able deputy and, led by brilliant performances from captain Craig Casey and Brian Gleeson to highlight two, they grabbed the required result.<\/p>\n

The only sour note struck was when Munster hooker Diarmuid Barron claimed that he had been spat on\/at by a Lions player. The game was held up for several minutes as the match officials investigated but were unable to find evidence, and the referee, Andrea Piardi, asserted that it would be further examined after the game.<\/p>\n

McMillan said: \u201cAh look, he\u2019s been around a long time and we\u2019re not a team that plays silly buggers, so you\u2019d imagine he felt or he saw what he saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe only have three or four angles available to us. I\u2019m sure others might have a look at it but that\u2019s not our job to do now, other people will have a look and if there\u2019s something there to see then they\u2019ll deal with it and if there isn\u2019t, then we\u2019ll move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0URC final day playoff permutations and Champions Cup qualification explainerOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Munster\u2019s reward is a URC quarter-final against the Bulls in Pretoria. McMillan said: \u201cIt\u2019s probably a relief more than anything. Not just the blokes out on the field, but the 15,000 in the stands and lots in their homes. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was big pressure coming into a game like this where it\u2019s obvious what we needed to do. It was never going to be easy, but I thought our guys acquitted themselves well under the circumstances. We were tough when we needed to be. I\u2019m pleased for the players. We\u2019ve been working hard to give ourselves an opportunity to get to finals rugby and that\u2019s been achieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s James Lowe scores his side’s 10th try to demolish Ospreys at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday. Photograph: Ben Brady\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Leinster grabbed their spot as second seeds with a thumping 10-try, 68-14 demolition of the Ospreys at the Aviva Stadium. The Stormers\u2019 defeat to Cardiff on the Friday night gave the Irish province a chance to leapfrog over them in the table, thereby guaranteeing home advantage for their quarter-final against the Lions and, if they win, a semi-final.<\/p>\n

Joe McCarthy grabbed a hat trick of tries while two players returning from long-term injury, Jordan Larmour (2) and James Lowe also crossed the visitors\u2019 line. Lowe\u2019s try equalled the club record of 69 previously held by Shane Horgan.<\/p>\n

Larmour, Lowe, Tadhg Furlong, Alex Usanov and Jack Conan both came through the match with no adverse reaction to pre-existing injuries and issues. Harry Byrne and Jamison Gibson-Park came off at half-time. Tommy O\u2019Brien, a late withdrawal, was pulled out of the game as a precaution. <\/p>\n

Leo Cullen explained: \u201cHarry [had] a little bit of [back] tightness but I think he\u2019s okay. Jamison, again, we just decided to make the change with the halfbacks at halftime. Hugh Cooney, he probably looked the most significant there. Obviously, he had come off the bench to replace Garry [Ringrose], so he\u2019s done something to his knee there. Hopefully, it\u2019s not too bad, but he looks like the most significant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leinster\u2019s immediate priority is this Saturday\u2019s Champions Cup final against reigning champions Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles in Bilbao. Cullen said: \u201cThis is going to be a huge week for the club, and I know it\u2019s going to be an amazing challenge against Bordeaux. They\u2019ve probably been the form team in Europe over the last couple of seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know they are heavy favourites going into the game, but we\u2019ll do everything we can to give it our best shot. Bordeaux is literally up the road from Bilbao, so it\u2019ll be a hostile atmosphere over there, but hopefully there\u2019ll be a few Leinster jerseys in the crowd. [Our players] know what\u2019s at stake here now. And that\u2019s why you see guys play to the very end, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

URC quarter-finals <\/p>\n

Friday, May 29th<\/p>\n

Glasgow v Connacht, 7.45pm <\/p>\n

Saturday, May 30th<\/p>\n

Bulls v Munster, 12pm <\/p>\n

Stormers v Cardiff, 2.30pm<\/p>\n

Leinster v Lions, 8pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And then there were eight \u2013 including three Irish provinces: Leinster, Munster and Connacht \u2013 on the URC\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28454,61,60,11287,11897,112,31398,14881],"class_list":["post-454430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-connacht-rugby","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-leinster-rugby","tag-munster-rugby","tag-sports","tag-ulster-rugby","tag-united-rugby-championship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}