The 2025–26 season is Connacht Rugby's fifth season in the United Rugby Championship, their 32nd season of professional rugby and their 138th season of representative rugby since the foundation of the Connacht Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. Along with competing in the URC and its Irish Shield competition, the club will also participate in the 2025–26 EPCR Challenge Cup.
In the women's game, Connacht will compete in the 2025 Vodafone Inter-Provincial Championship.
Connacht Men Senior squad Connacht Rugby senior squadProp Denis Buckley, 34 Finlay Bealham, 33 Peter Dooley, 30 Jordan Duggan, 27 Jack Aungier, 26 Sam Illo, 24 Temi Lasisi, 24 Fiachna Barrett, 22 Billy Bohan, 19
Hooker Dave Heffernan, 34 Dylan Tierney-Martin, 26 Eoin de Buitléar, 23 Matthew Victory, 22
Lock Joe Joyce, 31 Josh Murphy, 30 David O'Connor, 30 Oisín Dowling, 28 Niall Murray, 25 Darragh Murray, 24Back row Paul Boyle, 28 Sean Jansen, 26 Cian Prendergast, 25 Shamus Hurley-Langton, 25 Seán O'Brien, 24
Scrum-half Caolin Blade, 31 Ben Murphy, 24 Matthew Devine, 23 Albert Lindner, 19
Fly-half Jack Carty, 32 Josh Ioane, 29 Seán Naughton, 20Centre Bundee Aki, 35 David Hawkshaw, 26 Cathal Forde, 24 John Devine, 21 Hugh Gavin, 21 Finn Treacy, 20
Winger Sam Gilbert, 26 Byron Ralston, 25 Shayne Bolton, 25 Shane Jennings, 24
Fullback Mack Hansen, 27 Chay Mullins, 23 James Nicholson, 22 Harry West, 22 (c) denotes the team captain, Bold denotes internationally capped players. * denotes players qualified to play for Ireland on residency or dual nationality. ST denotes a short-term signing. L denotes a player on loan at the club. Players and their allocated positions from the Connacht Rugby website.
Transfers
United Rugby Championship Matches
Table
Playoffs
Quarter-final
URC Irish Shield table
Challenge Cup
Pool matches
The fixtures for the EPCR Challenge Cup were released on 15 July 2025.
Knockout stage
Connacht qualified for a home tie in the round of sixteen when they confirmed a third place finish in Pool 1 in Round 4 with a 75–14 victory over Montauban of France. Connacht were guaranteed at worst the eighth seeding following the match, securing a knockout tie at home. Further results elsewhere confirmed an eighth-place seeding, and a last 16 tie at home to fellow URC team, Sharks. The tie was the first European competition match played at The Sportsground following its full redevelopment.
A 29–12 victory against the South Africans earned Connacht an away quarter-final to Montpellier. A 45–22 defeat to the French side ended Connacht's participation in the Challenge Cup at the quarter-final stage.
Round of 16
Quarter-final
Connacht Women
IRFU Women's Interprovincial Series
The 2025 IRFU Women's Interprovincial Series is being contested by women's teams representing the four provincial rugby unions of Ireland, under the same branding and uniforms as the senior men's teams in the United Rugby Championship. The competition currently uses a single round-robin format, similar to the one used in both the Six Nations Championship and the Women's Six Nations Championship. Each team plays the other three teams once. The following year the fixtures are reversed. As in previous seasons the competition also features playoffs and a final.
Matches
Table
Finals day
Third-place final
Celtic Challenge
References