The BKT United Rugby Championship is back this weekend. Munster will host Connacht in the opening Irish interprovincial clash, while Leinster will travel to Edinburgh and Ulster host Glasgow.
Different factors will come into the selection process for these games. While the opening rounds of the URC action rarely sees any international presence, this season the returning internationals will be afforded some flexibility due to the constraints that the Emerging Ireland tour might pull on the provinces' resources.
Squad updates across the summer have shown the numbers that have come in and gone out of each squad. There seems to be a general directive to tighten up on squad sizes across the Irish provinces. Connacht and Ulster have both offloaded more than they brought in this season.
Josh Ioane is the big summer signing for Connacht. Along with the return of Mack Hansen and Santiago Cordero, there's at least half a backline of elite attacking talent for Connacht to work with.
However, their squad overall has become lighter which is a slight worry for the sustainability of their performance across a season.
They have offloaded experienced players like Jarrad Butler, Tom Daly and Gavin Thornbury, Tiernan O' Halloran has retired, and they’ve lost a pair of backs to Munster in the shape of Diarmuid Kilgallen and Tom Farrell.
Outside of Ioane, they’ve three academy graduates in Chay Mullins, Hugh Gavin and Matthew Devine, two of which are travelling with Simon Easterby's Emerging Ireland tour and won’t be available to play for a few rounds of the URC.
If the forward pack, now led by new captain, Cian Prendergast, can win clean ball or even get parity at the setpiece, Connacht's attack will score a lot of tries
They’ve signed a pair of Leinster players in Temi Lasisi and Ben Murphy as well as a few others. The net effect is that their squad is lighter, but they still have the top-end players that could see them win their fair share of games.
If the forward pack, now led by new captain Cian Prendergast, can win clean ball or even get parity at the setpiece, Connacht’s attack will score a lot of tries.
Munster’s turnover provides a shorter but more potent list of players. They’ve made some astute signings including the Connacht pair of Farrell and Kilgallen, along with Billy Burns and Thaakir Abrahams. There’s quite a strong promotion of academy players too.
Munster have lost some key personnel in Joey Carbery, RG Snyman, Antoine Frisch and Simon Zebo, however, they didn’t always have the availability of these players and they seem to have recruited well considering.
Leinster’s recruitment drive was a mix of high-end international quality signings, with some promotion of academy players. The addition of Rabah Slimani caused quite a stir, as he scraped through before the IRFU led embargo on non-Irish qualified props.
They acquired Snyman (above) as he was let go from Munster, which was a shrewd signing, as well as adding Jordie Barrett for a few months in the second half of the season.
Despite losing the likes of Rhys Ruddock to retirement, Ross Moloney to Bath, Jason Jenkins to the Sharks and Michael Ala'alatoa swapping directly with Slimani, Leinster have come through the summer with a net positive effect on their already healthy squad.
While contributing 12 players to the Emerging Ireland tour, and a significant proportion of the national team, Leinster should still have the resources to kick off their season with an away win at Edinburgh before facing the Dragons at home.
Ulster, having benefitted from the bounce of Richie Murphy's appointment at the back-end of last season, have been able to catch their breath and properly go to work under their new head coach.
Cormac Izuchukwu and Harry Sheridan were popular with Murphy, but both will be missing the opening rounds due to their selection for Emerging Ireland.
They’ve lost a lot of quality in Billy Burns, Dave Ewers and Steven Kitshoff, and although Werner Kok and Aidan Morgan are good signings in themselves, it seems as though Ulster will have to find even more from within this year.
Ulster are unfortunately going through a tidying up period from decisions of the past and the squad reflects some tough decisions being made. They’ll have enough to challenge for a home semi-final in this year’s URC, however they’ll need to find a consistency early in the league.
They’re well capable of stringing together the results, it could be a challenging year for a young squad if they don’t get off the mark early.
Connacht could go to Thomond Park and get a result, but the home team has dominated that fixture in the last number of years, and I’d expect it to be the same this time out.
Leinster should put their name at the top of the table early on, travelling to Edinburgh in one of the opening two games of the league this evening.
For Glasgow, Ulster at Kingspan Stadium is a tough challenge. The Scottish rugby management system could have a big say on proceedings in Belfast.
Scotland played more of a development tour in the past couple of months, yet their tour still went long beyond any other northern hemisphere team. That could impact their selection quite a bit. It’s probably the best time for Ulster to face a quality side like Glasgow, if their internationals aren’t made available.
The beginning of a new league campaign will bring opportunities for younger players to break through, particularly in a year where internationals will be managed after coming off the back of an extended season last year.
Munster and Connacht will be the main showpiece from an Irish perspective. All eyes will be on Thomond Park on Saturday evening at 5.30pm.
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