United Rugby Championship (URC) Round 16 produced a rare run of results – all four Irish provinces were beaten in the league on the same weekend for the first time since 2015.
This worrying sequence began at Cardiff on Friday night where Munster lost 16-21 and it continued on Saturday with Connacht beaten 7-26 by the Lions in Johannesburg, Leinster losing 22-35 at Scarlets and then Ulster succumbing 19-22 to the Sharks in Belfast.
It was in Round 17 of the old PRO12 10 years ago when the Irish last posted a deflating run of LLLL, Connacht losing 17-18 at Cardiff, Munster beaten 12-26 at Ospreys, Leinster ousted 13-23 at Scarlets and Ulster downed 22-26 at Dragons.
Well ahead of the rest at the top of the URC league table, Leinster’s readymade excuse for their latest setback in Wales was their priority is winning this Saturday’s Investec Champions Cup semi-final at home to Northampton Saints.
Hence, the reason why Leo Cullen purposely sent a second-string side across the Irish Sea. The other three Irish provinces, however, had no such excuse for their losses – and their collective misfortunes this season suggest that all is not right in Irish rugby just now in terms of its strength in depth.
Downturn in the outcome of games versus the South Africans
The three non-Leinster provinces have dubiously all lost more games than they have won this term – ninth-place Munster have lost nine of their 16 matches and depressingly face missing out on Champions Cup qualification for the first time in their history.
12th-place Ulster have also suffered nine defeats while results have been even worse for 14th-place Connacht as they have been beaten 11 times.
For years the general chat has been about how strong the Irish provinces are, that their schools systems supposedly provide a never-ending conveyor belt of fresh talent that is lapped up on an annual basis.
Only in Leinster, though, has this narrative genuinely been true with the other provinces now paying a price for lack of squad depth in a URC tournament where the level of across-the-board competitiveness in its 16-team format is many notches above what it used to be in the old PRO14/PRO12 era.
A year ago, when Munster topped the regular season table, Ulster finished sixth and Connacht placed 11th, these three provinces collectively won 25 and drew one of their 36 matches against South African, Welsh, Italian and Scottish opposition. This time, with four of these 36 fixtures remaining, the Irish trio have won just 14 matches and lost 18.
A big reason for this downturn is the outcome of the games versus the South Africans. The 2023/24 record for the Irish trio was W7 L5, figures that now read W3 L9 for 2024/25.
Last season’s record against Welsh opposition has also declined, falling from W11 L1 to W9 L3 and while two matches are remaining with Scottish opposition in the coming weeks, the record of W1 L3 doesn’t compare favourably to last season’s W3 L3 last season.
It’s a similar downturn against the Italians – W1 L3 this term with two matches left compared to W4 D1 L1 last season.
The situation is worrying fans who feel the Irish system is currently lopsided and weighted too much in Leinster’s favour at the expense of Munster, Ulster and Connacht.
The IRFU recently announced changes to its central contracting system. From August 2026, the four provinces will now have to foot the cost of 40 per cent of the salaries of its star Ireland Test players, up from 30 per cent. It’s a tweak that will mostly affect Leinster, as they have the majority of IRFU-awarded central contracts.
However, while it’s said that funds generated by the change will be invested in the Munster, Ulster and Connacht player pathways to help them close the gap on Leinster, that is a long-term idea that won’t address the current fall-off.
The season’s Irish decline is damagingly reflected in the end-of-season race for eight placings. A year ago, three Irish qualifiers were joined by two South African, one Scottish, one Welsh and one Italian team.
Now, with two rounds of regular season matches remaining, the quarter-finals look set to accommodate just one Irish province along with three South Africans, two Welsh, one Scottish and one Italian side. That’s quite the change.
Src: Planetrugby.com - https://www.planetrugby.com/news/the-worrying-10-year-record-broken-last-weekend-by-the-irish-provinces
