United Rugby Championship Round 3: All you need to know

The third week of the new season brings with it arguably the biggest game of the campaign to date.

After starting OUT with bonus-point wins, Ulster and Leinster are the early pace-setters in the URC, but at least one side's perfect record will end this week.

While Leinster finished top of the Irish Shield last season, as well as the regular season standings, Ulster had their number, winning their meetings at both the RDS and Kingspan Stadium.

With two games under their belt and most of their frontline internationals back on the pitch for both sides, the early season cobwebs have also been blown off, making for a fascinating contest in Belfast.

While Leinster and Ulster will be looking to maintain their hot starts, both Munster and Connacht will be hoping their campaigns can start warming up.

Defeats to Ulster and Stormers have sent Connacht to the bottom of the table through two weeks, and with Bundee Aki and Jack Carty both absent, they look up against it this evening against the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, with the hosts close to full-strength.

Munster welcome one of the league's early surprise packages - Zebre Parma - to Musgrave Park for their first home game of the season, looking to kickstart their campaign after defeats to both Cardiff and Dragons, and give new head coach Graham Rowntree his first win in the job.

TV

Ulster v Leinster (Friday, 7.35pm) and Munster v Zebre Parma (Saturday, 5.05pm) are both live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, while Bulls v Connacht (Friday, 5.30pm) is available to watch on TG4.

RADIO

RTÉ Radio 1 Extra will have live commentary from Ulster v Leinster on Friday night at Kingspan Stadium, while you can hear updates from Munster v Zebre Parma on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1..

ONLINE

RTE.ie/sport will have