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

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

NRL: Warriors vs Panthers (Saturday July 30, 1:00pm HKT)
Warriors fans are well accustomed to having their hearts broken in cruel and unusual ways, but last week’s golden point loss to the Raiders – their 4th golden point game of the season and 3rd golden point loss – was up there with the most harrowing. And with the other teams in the top 8 race collecting two points last weekend they are now precariously placed in 9th on the table. The Panthers leapfrogged them into 8th on the back of a big win over the Broncos at Suncorp on Friday –  a result which is sure to give them a lot of confidence as they cross the Tasman. They’ll meet a Warriors side desperate for a win if they are to continue to have any realistic hopes of reaching the playoffs.

Super Rugby: Hurricanes vs Chiefs (Saturday July 30, 3:35pm HKT)
It’s hard to pick which of these sides had a more dominant quarterfinals win to get them to this game. The Hurricanes achieved a Super Rugby playoffs first by holding the Sharks scoreless in a 41-0 rout in atrocious conditions at Westpac Stadium, while the Chiefs travelled to Cape Town and put a half-century past the Stormers, winning 60-21. Saturday’s semifinal will be different – their Round 9 meeting, which ended 28-27 to the Chiefs, showed just how evenly-matched these sides are. Even with the Chiefs having to travel from South Africa and the Hurricanes having home advantage, this seems almost guaranteed to go down to the wire.

NRL: Cowboys vs Storm (Saturday July 30, 5:30pm HKT)
Any notions that the Cowboys might have been falling off the title pace going into the home stretch of the season were well and truly put to bed last Thursday night when they handed the Bulldogs a 36-0 drubbing in Townsville. In that kind of form they’ll be in the top four come playoffs time for sure, and back-to-back Premierships is still a very real possibility. They face one of their strongest title challengers this weekend in the Storm, who have been typically ruthless in only dropping three games all season. With Johnathan Thurston sidelined by injury the Cowboys could be vulnerable.

Super Rugby: Lions vs Highlanders (Saturday July 30, 9:00pm HKT)
The Highlanders are a little lucky to even be boarding the plane to Johannesburg this week after only narrowly escaping the Brumbies’ cold, wet GIO Stadium fortress on Friday. In the final ten minutes they were forced to defend phase after phase on their own goal line, and showed why they’re the best defensive side in the competition. This weekend they meet probably the best attacking side in the Lions, who showed what they are capable of in clinically dismantling the Crusaders last weekend. The Highlanders may have beaten the Lions comfortably enough in Dunedin back in Round 3, but a semifinal at Ellis Park is a whole another story.

NRL: Titans vs Sharks (Monday August 1, 5:00pm HKT)
The Sharks’ 36-4 win over the Knights last week was their 15th win in a row; the NRL record for consecutive wins is 19, set by Eastern Suburbs in 1975. It may be a little early to start talking about breaking that record, but looking at the Sharks’ next five opponents (Titans, Raiders, Dragons, Rabbitohs, and Roosters) you wouldn’t bet against it. Getting past the Titans this weekend is no formality though – the Gold Coast side have struck a rich vein of form as seen in their comprehensive defeat of the Eels last week – but if the Sharks’ back three play like they did to Knights last week we should see the streak edge up to 16.