16 Questions that could define the United Rugby Championship - Scotland/Italy
Glasgow has a job just to keep up, Edinburgh and Benetton need to fulfil their potential and Zebre has to score points. If they don't deliver, they risk being left behind for some time.
This week I have asked key questions ahead of the URC’s start this evening. After looking at the teams from Ireland, South Africa and Wales, this post looks at the Scots and Italians.
Glasgow
Is “not as good as Leinster” the best they can hope for?
Last season’s Glasgow was a very good team, performing at a high level in almost every area. And yet the end of the season was a damp squib, losing the last three league matches before a semi-final loss that Glasgow never looked like winning. Can Glasgow find more areas to improve, those 1 percents, that help them to properly challenge?
Looking back, Glasgow’s defence was still excellence. A full defensive commitment brought them the title in 2024, crystalised in that great performance in Pretoria, and it was still there in 2025. Even though they generally had more possession than the opposition they still made a high number of tackles, not giving away easy points. They will make you work hard.
Their attack is still very good - most clean breaks, most defenders beaten - and it would be hard to really criticise them. Their points per 40 mins possession was more middle of the pack than top level, but I would be stretching to make that a significant issue.
They even had some fortune where they will almost certainly move towards the mean this year. They scored more tries from kick returns (14) and though their outside backs are very good, we shouldn’t expect them to score almost 1 a game every season. Then there was their discipline record where they received only 4 yellow cards even though they gave away the 5th most penalties. For comparison, the Bulls conceded about the same number of penalties but received 19 yellows and 4 reds. Yes, Glasgow were probably smarter than the Bulls, but this season they should expect about 10 cards which was normal in earlier seasons.
If their defence and attack were good and even fortune seemed to be on their side, what else can Glasgow do to confidently challenge for the title? Their set piece was not the best and could be better. Their lineout success was below average, but it was better than Leinster’s and it still produced the 4th most maul tries. There scrum was also only about average, but not particularly concerning. My one suggestion would be to attack the opposition’s lineout and scrum more to add further pressure.
I actually think we are more likely to see the team regress than progress. Tom Jordan leaves a big hole that will be hard for the incoming Dan Lancaster to fill. With similar minutes, Jordan was much more of a threat in attack while also playing his part in a great defence. Lancaster will need some time to get up to full speed. Charlie Savala can also help to fill the void, and he has URC experience with Edinburgh, but he has not played much for the last two seasons with Northampton.
For Glasgow to challenge for the title and topple Leinster they will need to maintain high standards, hope luck goes their way again, have new players fill holes quickly and find an edge that has somehow eluded the Dublin boys. It’s a lot to ask and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them playing an away quarter-final come May.
Edinburgh
Can they make Good Forwards + Good Backs > Mediocre Results?
Here are some facts.
The league’s top scorers for the past two seasons play for Edinburgh.
Edinburgh had the best turnover margin in 2024/25, winning 43 more than they lost.
Of the Scottish players listed on RugbyPass, 25 played for Glasgow and 22 played for Edinburgh at some point over the past 2 years.
Glasgow scored the third most tries last season and Edinburgh scored the fourth most.
Glasgow won the competition in 2024 and Edinburgh has never been past the quarterfinal.
The Edinburgh squad has experienced, good players across all of the roles. Their standard of play is generally good with a good scrum, solid lineout, turnover threats, they look after the ball and their kicking is some of the most accurate. This should be a team that aspires to do better than 7th to 10th every single season.
And yet this is where they are.
The problem seems to be a mix of poorer coaching and the mental side of the game, because the personnel are no worse than more regular playoff contenders.1 Edinburgh were average at almost everything. Number of offloads - 10th. Number of tries from set piece - 6th. Tries from mauls - 7th. Pick a metric and you’ll probably find metric hovering in shrug territory: not great but not terrible.
Then there is the performance inconsistency. For example:
They lost narrowly to the Bulls and then were hammered 55-21 at the Lions even though they had an extra week to acclimatise. A week later they hammer the Stormers back in Scotland.
In February they lose at home to Zebre 17-22 and a week later go to Munster and win 34-28 in a make-or-break game. Later they go to Zebre and only draw.
This has been Edinburgh for years. You think they are getting on a roll and then they put in a performance that makes you wonder if they actually like winning.
Will things improve this season? Well, the bad news is the squad is probably a bit weaker. Losing Ali Price and Jamie Ritchie to French largesse will be massive blows. Ben Vellacott is a good replacement at scrum half, but he is less of an attacking threat (0.67 try involvements per 80 minutes compared to Price’s 0.98) and weaker in defence (2.9 tackles per 80 minutes versus 4.7). I am curious about the impact Dylan Richardson makes after switching from the Sharks, his stats were about average in limited minutes, but Ritchie showed he is a quality operator with above average try involvements and especially in defence where he is a pest at rucks and turnovers. It will take a squad to fill the gap he is leaving.
The good news is they still have a strong core and no glaringly weaknesses. Their front five can pummel most teams, their backrow is gritty, their tens have the tools to manage things and their wings, when fit, can score from anywhere. And we shouldn’t forget they did make the playoffs last year. I just wish they would do something more than average across the season.
Benetton
Is this season now or never?
On 24th April the Guardian newspaper published an article with Jacob Umaga, Benetton’s sometime fly-half, sometime full back, former England international and now Samoa international. Benetton had made it to the knock-out stages of the Champions Cup, were on a 3 game win streak and just beaten the Lions in South Africa. The article’s title was Jacob Umaga and the English rugby players driving Benetton to success.
Two days later they were hammered 56-5 by the Stormers in Cape Town. Umaga scored the 5 so not a complete loss.
This season feels like a crossroad for Benetton. Over the past few years they have developed into a team that can challenge the top teams. They have the majority of the Italy squad, including many of the best Italian players, and added a few top internationals to produce a competitive squad beyond the first XV. The pack can bully you with possibly the most attacking scrum in the league and a maul that regularly leads to tries. If you match their forwards you will have to deal with an electric backline lead by Argentina’s highly talented 10 Tomás Albornoz who can unleash players such as centre Tommaso Menoncello, the 6 Nations Player of the Year, and wings Paolo Odogwu and Iganico Mendy.
However, with all of this talent they only managed to finish 10th last season while scoring the 3rd fewest tries (50), an incredible mark considering the talent. They did struggle to retain possession (5th least), but that was not because they kicked it away but because they lost more turnovers than they won (45, 3rd worst margin). They were also bad at converting entries into the 22 into tries (3rd worst) and bad at stopping the opposition from the doing the same (2nd worst). In many ways they were the anti-Cardiff who were much more lethal with the little ball they had.
I think this is a key season because (a) their coach has left to join Sale in the Prem (I wonder if Sale looked at Benetton’s stats?) and (b) some key players are coming to the end of their current contracts. Rumour has it that Albornoz will join Toulon in 2026 while Menoncello’s contract also ends next season along with Umaga and Rhyno Smith, the livewire at full back. Extensions are still possible, but only if they think the team can be competitive at the top end - another mid-table finish is not going to be enough.
Contract discussions usually start by Christmas and therefor Benetton will need to start well with consistently strong performances in the league. This season they have one of the easier schedules though the first half is tougher. If they are reasonably placed by the new year then some players may be willing to sign on for a couple of years. Of course, the French Euro and the Top 14 are hard to turn down, but the potential to win something is why players start playing in the first place.
In many ways seeing squads of the quality of Benetton and Edinburgh sitting in mid-table is a good sign for the URC. Good players can’t just turn up and hope to be challenging for honours, something the Sharks have realised and worked on. However, the fact these teams have beem fairly irrelevant is not great - you want them to be 7th or 10th because others did well rather than they underperformed. After three years as an assistant coach, Calum McRae has a big job stepping up to the Head Coach role and getting this team to make the most of the talent that many others would love to have.
Zebre
Will Zebre have any attack without Prisciantelli?
Last season was a big step forward for Zebre. After winning 2 games over the first three URC seasons, they won 5 games! They conceded 130 fewer points than in 2023/24, or 7 points a game. They still finished 15th, but that just shows how far back they were that a significant improvement only made a small impact on the league.
Though their defence has improved remarkably by 230 points over two seasons, they actually scored fewer points last season with just 302 (17 points per game). And central to that attack was Geronimo Prisciantelli who has now moved to Racing. Prisciantelli was 16th in the league for try involvements (10, or 26% of Zebre’s tries) and 6th for carries (164, 9%) and 2nd for metres made (932m, 15%). These preformances not only sealed a move to France, they also earned him a call up to the Pumas in the Rugby Championship.
What are Zebre going to do now that a major part of their attack, basically all of their attack, has left? The number of offloads and metres they made were respectable last season, but I struggle to see any other signs of hope. Their lineout was poor (as bad as Munster’s!) leading to relatively few maul tries per game. Their scrum was OK but it wasn’t much of a weapon, while they struggled to score off the turnovers their good defence created.
I really want to be more positive about Zebre as it’s good to see a more competitive league. Winning 5 games last season was a really good step forward. But, if they cannot find a way to score more regularly while filling the massive space left by Prisciantelli then 5 wins will be a really good season. People say defense wins championships, but scoring certainly helps.
I won’t argue if you say centre lacked sufficient quality. I will argue if you say that Piers O’Connor will significantly improve things.