We had 366 days to enjoy rugby in 2024, and the United Rugby Championship, throughout its two seasons of play, gave us plenty for which to be thankful.

A league title was won, upsets were all over the place and plenty of history was made across the calendar. 

With another year of play in one of the most cutthroat and talent-heavy club rugby competitions in the world on the horizon, we can’t wait to dive into whatever else may be in store.

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Let’s recap the year that was first, however, and appreciate the times rugby fans had to cherish.

Here’s a look at five moments that shocked and stunned us the most in the United Rugby Championship:

Zebre Comes Back To Beat Munster In Famous Upset (Round 2, 2024-2025)

Look away now, Munster fans, but Zebre Parma’s stunner over the 2023-2024 regular-season champion early in this current season at full-time instantly became one of the most shocking results of the URC era.

Having finished in completely opposite places in the 2023-2024 table, Zebre — often anchored at, or near, the bottom of the league standings — wasn’t expected to hang very long with Munster in Round 2, even in the comforts of home at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi. 

On a 14-game URC losing run entering the match, Zebre’s misery initially looked to be continuing, as it found itself down 28-15 at the half, following a Munster double from Harry Coombes and tries in support from Mike Haley and Bryan Fitzgerald.

Then, against all odds, Zebre pulled a rabbit out of a hat and erupted into a magical second half.

The hosts scored 24 unanswered points, as Jacopo Trulla and Alessandro Fusco each completed braces, and both Giovanni Licata and Geronimo Prisciantelli also got across for tries without reply from the shell-shocked visitors. 

A late Shay McCarthy try, and Tony Butler conversion, gave Munster a little bit of life, but Giacomo De Re officially put the match to bed shortly after with a penalty kick to seal the instantly iconic 42-33 triumph.

It marked the beginning of the end for Munster boss Graham Rowntree, who left the club about a month later, and while Zebre has been unable to turn its greatest win into sustained success this season, it forever will be a day the club and its supporters won’t soon forget.

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Derby’s Hampden Debut Rung In With A Warriors Win (Round 8, 2024-2025)

Scottish rugby’s biggest fixture, and the oldest inter-district rugby match in the world, the 1872 Cup, is one of the most storied derbies in world rugby. 

Though the Edinburgh leg has been played for decades at Murrayfield, the Scottish national team’s home stadium, the Glasgow leg of the two-match annual series often has been played at much smaller venues over the years, including the Warriors’ home ground at Scotstoun and the nearby Firhill Stadium.

That all changed Dec. 22, when Glasgow’s biggest rugby match of the year finally got the red-carpet treatment.

For the first time in two decades, and in the entire history of the 1872 Cup, a rugby match was played on the pitch at Hampden Park (the home of the Scotland national football team) when the Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh kicked off the opening leg in their yearly doubleheader, in which the reigning URC champion Warriors were starting their quest to try and make it a third consecutive series win.

The Warriors marked the historic occasion at Hampden (where 27,538 spectators watched it all unfold) by romping past their rivals by a 33-14 margin, obliterating Edinburgh in a match that was far more lopsided than the score indicated. 

Johnny Matthews scored twice as part of a five-try haul for Glasgow, which flirted with a shutout, before Boan Venter secured a brace in the final 10 minutes.

Edinburgh won the return leg at Murrayfield a week later, but the Warriors’ electric performance at one of the most storied grounds in Scottish sports powered them to a comfortable winning margin on aggregate to retain the 1872 Cup, keeping it in Glasgow for another year.

Bulls Bin Injury Concerns, Stun Loaded Leinster In Semis (Semifinals, 2023-2024)

Even as undermanned underdogs, it isn’t smart to count out a South African side when it’s playing on home soil in a critical match. 

No fixture from last season exemplified that statement more than when a Bulls team, battered by injuries, stunned a stacked Leinster squad — tipped by many that year to win the URC outright — in a 25-20 stunner at Loftus Versfeld in the semifinals, a mini-preview of what would come a few weeks later in the international game, when South Africa defeated Ireland by a near-identical scoreline (27-20) in early July at the same ground.

Both Canan Moodie and Kurt-Lee Arendse, two of the world’s most dynamic and game-changing wings on their day, were sidelined for the Bulls due to injuries, meaning that firepower was going to need to come elsewhere from the host’s attack. 

Enter Johan Goosen and Sergeal Petersen, the starting and replacement fly-half, respectively, who scored all of the Bulls’ points (with Petersen in particular getting a second-half brace) and made it a tense final 10 minutes, as Leinster made push after push.

Cameron Hanekom — in a performance that likely helped set up his eventual Springboks debut later in the year — was brilliant across the park with 18 tackles, 14 carries and six defenders beaten, and he was among those on the Bulls that assisted in shutting down a desperate Leinster late that was scratching for a late winner. 

But even with a 22-phase attacking sequence and multiple pushes at the line, the Bulls held firm and booked their place in the final in an instant classic.

Record Crowd At Croke Park Sees Leinster Topple Munster (Round 4, 2024-2025)

It’s considered by many to be the finest club rugby derby in the world, and even when one team (Munster in this case) is having an underwhelming campaign by its lofty standards this season, the Leinster-Munster match is always full of high stakes and interpro bragging rights.

The massive number of spectators that packed into Croke Park to watch Leinster power past Munster in a 26-12 victory speaks to that.

With the colossus of Irish sports hosting the Leinster-Munster game for the first time since their legendary meeting in the 2009 European Cup semifinals, a URC-record 80,468 fans watched Leinster — full of senior Ireland internationals — get to work right away and start the fireworks early. 

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James Lowe, Caelan Doris and Hugo Keenan all crossed over for tries for Leinster within the first 15 minutes, pushing it to a 21-0 advantage and effectively helping Leinster pull away not even a quarter of the way through the match. 

Sean O’Brien found a try for Munster later in the first half, but Leinster proceeded to end the half by rubbing salt in the wounds, as RG Snyman — the Springboks lock who controversially moved from Munster to Leinster in the summer after his contract at the former club wasn’t renewed — powered over against his former club to clinch Leinster a bonus point just before the halftime whistle.

A scoreless second half from Leinster didn’t matter, as the hosts won comfortably, and the trophy-chasing juggernaut remains at a perfect nine wins from nine matches going into the new year with a devastating squad that’s proven capable of winning in any environment.

Glasgow Warriors Capture Championship On South African Soil (Final, 2023-2024)

They had to beat the 2022 champion. They had to beat the 2023 champion. They had to play the final at high elevation and thousands of miles from Glasgow.

It all didn’t matter for the Glasgow Warriors in last season’s knockout rounds. They came back from 13-0 down in the URC final against the Bulls in Pretoria to win 21-16 to capture the club’s first major trophy since winning the Pro12 title (the precursor to the URC) in the 2014-2015 season.

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After taking down the last two champions in the Stormers and Munster in order to begin the knockout rounds (in which Glasgow began its journey as the fourth seed following a 65-point regular season, three points adrift of first-place Munster), the Warriors run to the final was in danger of being anticlimactic. 

The Bulls — themselves on an emotional high after their aforementioned stunner in the semifinals over Leinster — struck first and got a try just before the 25-minute mark from Marco van Staden, plus some sure-footed kicking from Johan Goosen in support.

But a trio of tries later from the Scottish side via Scott Cummings (in first-half added time), George Turner and Huw Jones, flipped the match on its head and left the Bulls fans among the over 50,000 jammed into Loftus Versfeld stunned into shock. 

Still, the Warriors’ win wasn’t for certain until the final siren, especially when a Tom Jordan yellow card put Glasgow a man down for the tense final few minutes, but the Warriors held firm as the roar of Loftus begged for a mistake.

Now, heading into 2025, the URC runs through Glasgow — and the Warriors are welcoming all challengers to try and unseat them from their perch.

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