This Week’s Biggest Matches On Rugby Pass

We preview the best matches to catch on Rugby Pass this weekend as the Autumn Internationals season begins with Wales taking on the Wallabies in Cardiff and Ireland meeting the All Blacks in Chicago.

Autumn International: Wales vs Australia (Saturday November 5, 10:30pm HKT)
Wales will be looking for their first win over the Wallabies since 2008 when the Autumn Internationals kick off in Cardiff on Saturday. This is a closer rivalry than that makes it seem though – Australia have won the last ten encounters by an average winning margin of less than five points. A relatively injury-free Wales are a good shot to end that run this weekend if they keep up the promising form they showed on their June tour of New Zealand. They won’t find too much to worry about in the Wallabies’ Rugby Championship tapes; the Australians have been in a season-long rut since reaching the World Cup final last year.

Top 14: Racing 92 vs Montpellier (Saturday November 5, 11:00pm HKT)
Both these teams won ugly last weekend. Racing battled to a 16-3 win over bottom-of-the-table Bayonne in a game with 5 yellow cards, the only try (to Juan Imhoff, who else) taking until the 70th minute to arrive. Montpellier didn’t take the lead against La Rochelle until the 81st minute when a Ben Botica penalty saw them sneak a 12-11 win on the back of their trademark stone wall defence. Racing’s win lifted them back into the top half of the table for the first time in a while; a win over Montpellier could boost them into the playoff spots.

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Autumn International: Ireland vs New Zealand (Sunday November 6, 4:00am HKT)
Ireland have never beaten the All Blacks – a fact that’s unlikely to change at Chicago’s Soldier Field this weekend – but they have come agonisingly close on a few occasions. Last time the sides met in Dublin in 2013 it took a last-minute try, then a controversially retaken conversion, for the All Blacks to sneak home 24-22. Ireland showed signs of promise against South Africa in June, narrowly losing the test series 2-1, and if they hang in there with the All Blacks for the first 60 minutes the way Wales did, they could just get their miracle.

Four Nations: Australia vs New Zealand (Sunday November 6, 4:00am HKT)
Unless the final round sees the Kiwis lose to Scotland or England upset the Kangaroos – both of which seem equally unlikely – this match is a straight preview of the Four Nations final. Last weekend’s games didn’t give us much to go by, as the Kangaroos gave a bunch of their young players a burn in an easy 45-12 win over Scotland while the Kiwis laboured to a hard-earned win over England. They will be better served by that than the Australians were by their cakewalk, and the Kiwis should at the very least close the gap on last month’s disappointing 26-6 losing margin in Perth.