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This week's biggest matches to watch on Rugby Pass

Peter O’Mahony (Getty Images)

Everybody’s talking about the Lions but let’s not get ahead of ourselves – there’s still plenty of rugby to be played before June. This weekend there’s Champions Cup semis, Super Rugby and an Anzac Day treat from the NRL.

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Super Rugby: Crusaders vs Stormers (Saturday, April 22 3:35 pm HKT)
The Stormers leave their Cape Town fortress and head across the seas to Christchurch to play the unbeaten Crusaders – they don’t stand a chance, right? Well, maybe. Look a little closer at the Crusaders record and there’s a lot of Australian teams – and the Sunwolves – in that unbeaten run, and a lot of narrow margins. Does the table flatter to deceive? Perhaps the Stormers, who were also unbeaten until they fell at the hands of the Lions last week, shouldn’t abandon all hope just yet.

Champions Cup: Munster vs Saracens (Saturday, April 22, 10:15 pm HKT)
The semifinals of the European Champions Cup kick off on Saturday night with what promises to be a belter of a game at the Aviva. The visitors are the dominant side in European rugby, to an extent that threatens to go beyond ‘impressive’ and into downright ‘annoying’ at any moment. The home side are on a fairytale Champions Cup run, albeit a fairytale with a very dark beginning. They’re basically the Mighty Ducks to Saracens’ Team Iceland, and all but the most hardcore Sarries fan should be cheering them on this weekend.

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Super Rugby: Bulls vs Cheetahs (Saturday, April 22, 11:15 pm HKT)
The Bulls and Cheetahs have both been hard to get a read on this season. After suffering the ignominy of losing to the Sunwolves the Bulls bounced back and thumped the Jaguares last week. The same Jaguares hammered the Cheetahs in Round 4, after the Cheetahs had beaten the Bulls and Sunwolves in consecutive weeks. The one consistent is that all of these games were won by the home team. If you’re the betting type that will be a flashing light next to the Bulls, but be careful – you can’t trust anyone these days.

Champions Cup: Clermont vs Leinster (Sunday, April 23, 10:00 pm HKT)
If Saracens are annoying because they win everything, Clermont are annoying because they don’t when they probably should. The French powerhouse has a long and humiliating history of bottling it in semis and finals, something Leinster’s more gobby players will no doubt remind them of this weekend. The Pro12 leaders haven’t lost a game in 2017 and won’t be short on confidence as they journey to Lyon’s Stade de Gerland (notably not Clermont’s fortress Stade Marcel-Michelin) on Saturday.

NRL: Roosters vs Dragons (Tuesday, April 25, 2:00 pm HKT)
What a difference a year makes. 12 months ago this would have been a miserable bottom-of-the-table fixture; this Tuesday (Anzac Day) it’s 4 vs 1. The Dragons were better odds for the wooden spoon than the Premiership at the start of the season. Even now, seven weeks in, you keep waiting for the spell to break and for them to return to mediocrity, but they just keep winning. It’s horrible! Surely if anyone can put it right it’ll be the Roosters, who have bounced back from a rugby league annus horriblus last year to a genuine title contender this year.

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