Highest-Ranked Team Will Host URC Grand Final

The 2022 United Rugby Championship grand final will take place at the home venue of the highest-ranked team where the first ever URC champions will be crowned.

This announcement will heighten the importance for teams in the United Rugby Championship play-off hunt to pick up every available point over the remaining 28 regular season fixtures.

Among those games are 12 clashes between North and South, 14 head-to-heads between teams currently in play-off contention in addition to eight derby matches.

Martin Anayi, United Rugby Championship CEO, explained: “With some thrilling rugby ahead of us, the time is right to confirm our plans for the first ever United Rugby Championship grand final.

“For this campaign, it is important to understand how our teams and their fans are returning to normality after so long away from stadia and that our job is to deliver the best URC grand final we can in these circumstances.

“The reward of the highest-ranked team hosting the URC grand final adds even more to the competitive edge over the closing rounds of the league that will set us up for an incredible play-offs which now showcases our best eight teams in a battle to reach the URC grand final.”

The merit-based format to decide the venue for the URC final has previously been used between 2010 and 2014 for those season deciders and again in 2020 and 2021.

UNITED RUGBY CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFFS

– The final eight teams from the league table qualify for the quarter-final stage

– Teams are then ranked 1 to 8 with the top four teams earning home games for the final eight stage

– The two highest-ranked winners from the final eight (quarter-finals) will play their final four fixtures (semi-finals) at home

– The two winners from the final four will qualify for the United Rugby Championship final with the highest-ranked team hosting the game