URC chief allays fears over Emerging Ireland tour

United Rugby Championship chief Martin Anayi has played down concerns that the Emerging Ireland tour of South Africa later this month will dampen the competitiveness of the Irish sides in the URC.

The IRFU have confirmed a three-game tour of South Africa for the end of September and October, where they will face Currie Cup sides the Cheetahs, Griquas and Pumas across a 10-day spell.

With the Emerging Ireland trip set to clash with Rounds 3 and 4 of the new BKT United Rugby Championship season, it will see all four provinces working off a smaller squad early in the season.

The IRFU have said the 35-player squad will largely be populated by those who have stood out at U20 level in recent years, and the URC boss says their concerns have been allayed by Irish Rugby, with Ireland's frontline internationals set to be available during that period.

"What's been explained to me is that it's not the international players or first-rankers, it's the next crop," Anayi said, at this launch of the new season in London.

"The fear was because in those [URC] matches the first rankers are going to be playing that perhaps this group that's going on tour wouldn't get enough game time and that was a concern to the IRFU.

"I understand that because part of what URC was about was trying to make games of a higher quality. We always talked about having a cup competition which would be perfect for that rationale of bringing players through and giving them game time.

"We weren't able to bring that to fruition in this year. If we had put the cup competition on, they wouldn't have had a need to go and do this tour. Because we didn't, they're going and doing this tour.

"Does that impact the URC? Hopefully not because the first-ranked players are playing in the