BKT United Rugby Championship Round 8: All you need to know

After two mixed weekends of Champions Cup action, the Irish provinces turn their attention back towards the BKT United Rigby Championship over the festive period, where two big rounds of Interprovincial games take centre stage.

It starts on Friday night in Belfast, where Ulster will be looking to build on their best performance of the season. Dan McFarland's side were impressive 31-15 winners against Racing 92 in Belfast, and this week they welcome Connacht to Kingspan Stadium for their traditional pre-Christmas derby.

Munster and Leinster have a little longer to wait for their showdown, with the sides facing off at Thomond Park on Tuesday (St Stephen's Day).

ONLINE

We'll have live blogs of both Interpros from Kingspan Stadium and Thomond Park, as well as reports and reaction for both games.

TV

Munster v Leinster is live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on St Stephen's Day, with coverage getting under way at 7pm.

TG4 will be showing live coverage of Ulster v Connacht (Friday 22 December), while all games are shown live on URC.tv.

RADIO

Listen to live commentary of Ulster v Connacht on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra on Friday 22 December, while RTÉ Radio 1 will have full commentary from Thomond Park on 26 December when Munster face Leinster

WEATHER

It's expected to be a very windy night in Belfast for Ulster v Connacht, with a chance of some light rain, and temperatures of around 10C.

The early forecast for St Stephen's Day suggests it will stay dry for Munster v Leinster, with a mild afternoon becoming very cold by kick-off time at 7.35.

Listen to the RTÉ Rugby podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

While both sides come into the game off the back of successive URC defeats, Ulster appear to be in a better place