The Tight Five: This Week’s Biggest Matches on Rugby Pass

We preview the best matches to catch on Rugby Pass this weekend.

NRL: Dragons vs Titans (Friday July 15, 5:45pm HKT)
With the Eels officially docked 12 competition points this week, a spot in the top 8 opened up and was filled by the St George Illawarra Dragons – a club who earlier in the season had back-to-back weeks in which they failed to score a single point. The Dragons are a winning club, though, and they’ve hung in since the dark days of Rounds 5 and 6, picking up wins against depleted Cowboys and Storm sides during the Origin period. They need to win at least four of their remaining eight games to still be in the top 8 come the playoffs – the Titans, who they meet on Friday night, probably need to win five. Both sides have fairly tough run-ins to the end of the season, so a win here is essential.

Super League: Leeds vs Wigan (Saturday July 16, 2:55am HKT)
With six wins from 21 games and a howlingly bad points differential of -178, Leeds Rhinos sit dead last on the Super League table, which is an unusual position for one of the most successful teams in Super League history to find themselves. Wigan, the competition favourites, are at the other end of the table. Logic would suggest the Rhinos are going to lose this game by at least 50 points – and they might! – but this is Super League, a league where logic seems to be actively banned. Leeds proved as much last weekend when they came from behind to beat the table-topping Hull FC in Hull. Who says the bottom team can’t beat the top team in back-to-back weeks?

Super Rugby: Highlanders vs Chiefs (Saturday July 16, 3:30pm HKT)
There have been some prescient masterstrokes in the Super Rugby scheduling this season, but Saturday’s New Zealand conference-deciding double-header might be the best one yet. By the time the Highlanders and Chiefs run out on Forsyth Barr Stadium the Crusaders and Hurricanes will have already set the table and both teams will know exactly what they need to do to secure the most favourable route through the playoffs. The Highlanders are back from a circumnavigation of the globe, which sounds exhausting, but when the Chiefs did it earlier in the season they celebrated their homecoming by smashing the Force 53-10.

Super Rugby: Jaguares vs Lions (Sunday July 17, 5:35am HKT)
We have been saying for a while that The Road To The Super Rugby Title Runs Through Ellis Park, but will it actually? First the Lions have to navigate a tricky fixture in Buenos Aires – if they don’t win this then one of the New Zealand sides will beat them to the top of the overall table and the road to the final will be diverted through Addington or Waikato Stadium or something. Previously this season teams have only escaped Buenos Aires by the skin of their teeth, but the Highlanders may have finally broken the Jaguares spirit with their 34-8 win last week. The battle of the big cats is the Lions’ for the taking.

NRL: Panthers vs Eels (Sunday July 17, 1:55pm HKT)
The Panthers season may or may not be cursed ever since a cat got onto the Pepper Stadium pitch in the last round. The Eels season is very definitely cursed after the club was docked 12 competition points for salary cap breaches, meaning they are all but out of title contention. Despite this grim spectre hanging over them the Eels played some great footy in a come-from-behind win over the Roosters last weekend. The Panthers, who sit 10th on the table, just one win away from the top 8, will have to work hard to claim the two points this weekend.