Irish provinces look undercooked ahead of opening Champions Cup fixtures

In yet another change of format to the season, for the first time since 2018 the opening round of the Champions Cup has been shunted into October next weekend and as anticipated, through no fault of their own, the Irish provinces look decidedly undercooked compared to their French and English opponents.

Following Connacht’s mauling in Glasgow, Ulster’s comeback draw with Munster, and Leinster’s patchy 29-5 win in their RDS homecoming on Saturday night, the Irish quartet all sit in the bottom half of the table before this first of nine interruptions to the URC season. What’s more, the provinces have only been permitted to use the bulk of their Ireland summer tourists over the weekend’s third round of matches.