BKT United Rugby Championship Round 9: All you need to know

The first day of 2024 marks the halfway point of the BKT United Rugby Championship regular season, as Round 9 sees a couple of big Interprovincial ties to close off the festive schedule.

It gets underway at the Sportsground at 3pm where two out of form sides will be looking to get back to winning ways as Connacht host Munster.

Then at 5.15pm, Leinster host an Ulster side who have picked up back to back wins in recent weeks, to get their seasons back on track.

ONLINE

We'll have live blogs of both Interpros from the Sportsground and the RDS, as well as reports and reaction from both games.

TV

Leinster v Ulster is live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on New Year's Day, with coverage getting under way at 4.45pm.

TG4 will be showing live coverage of Connacht v Munster (3pm), while all games are shown live on URC.tv.

RADIO

Listen to live commentary of both Connacht v Munster and Leinster v Ulster on RTÉ Radio 1.

WEATHER

It should be a cold afternoon in Galway for Connacht v Munster, with temperatures around 6C. There's a chance of rain, but it's expected most of the showers will land in Galway later in the evening.

It's likely to be similar weather in Dublin where Leinster host Ulster. A sunny afternoon will likely see some rain in the evening, but there's a good chance it will hold off until after the game at the RDS.

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

Both sides come into this game on a poor run of form.

Connacht have lost five in a row in all competitions, three of which have come in the URC, and you'd have to go back to the Kieran Keane days of 2018 for the last time they lost four in a row in this championship.

Munster's form isn't as bad, but the defending champions are three