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This week's biggest matches to watch on Rugby Pass
By RugbyPass
More intriguing Super Rugby match-ups this week, while there’s plenty still up for grabs in the final round of the regular season in the Premiership and Top 14.
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Super Rugby: Hurricanes vs Stormers (Friday, May 5, 3:35 pm HKT)
So far the Stormers tour of New Zealand has been like watching a horror movie. You want to look away but you also want to see how it finishes in the third act. The first two acts were unrelentingly bloody and gruesome – 57-24 to the Crusaders in Christchurch then 57-14 to the Highlanders in Dunedin – and the Hurricanes loom as the biggest rugby monster in New Zealand so far this year. Get the popcorn.
Premiership: Wasps vs Saracens (Saturday, May 6, 11pm)
This was always going to be a big match. But when the fixture fairies scheduled it for the final round of the regular season, few would have predicted just what would be at stake. Fate has decreed that free-scoring Wasps face one-eye-on-next-week’s Champions Cup ‘stonewall’ Saracens at the Ricoh, with the prize for the winner an all-important home play-off semi-final. The waters are muddied further by the fact that the other home semi candidates, Exeter, face Champions Cup-slot outside shots Gloucester.
Premiership: Northampton Saints vs Harlequins (Saturday, May 6, 11pm)
We could easily have selected Gloucester vs Exeter for a second Premiership match-of-the-weekend choice. But this clash at Franklin’s Gardens between seventh-placed Northampton and sixth-placed Harlequins – with the visitors’ precarious hold on the last automatic Champions Cup berth up for grabs – caught our eye. Last week, Quins monstered Wasps at the Stoop. John Kingston’s men, basically, need a point. But a defensive gameplan rarely succeeds, so they’ll be gunning for the most crucial win of their season. And the Saints have finally found some mongrel.
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Super Rugby: Bulls vs Crusaders (Saturday, May 6, 11:15 pm HKT)
The Bulls have only played three games at home so far this season and they have won them all. Only problem is they’ve lost all their away games. This weekend they host the Crusaders, who to be fair are a slightly tougher proposition than the Sunwolves, Jaguares or Cheetahs sides that left Loftus empty-handed. In fact, they are still unbeaten through the first 10 rounds. But they have to drop a game some time, and Pretoria is never an easy place to visit. Expect a decent contest.
Top 14: Racing 92 vs Bordeaux (Sunday, May 7, 2:45am)
Two of the six teams chasing the Top 14’s remaining automatic Champions Cup slot meet at Stade Yves du Manoir. A few weeks ago, the hosts and defending champions were all-but out of it … but a string of Ws and favourable results elsewhere means they come into the final round in the box seat for that all-important place at European club rugby’s top table next season. Bordeaux’s chances rest on complicated mathematics, but this has been a pretty unpredictable season in the Top 14. The rugby gods may have one last surprise up their sleeves.
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Top 14: Clermont vs La Rochelle (Sunday, May 7 2:45am)
Clermont would have preferred to rest a few key players ahead of next week’s Champions Cup final against Saracens. Unfortunately, they cannot afford to lose this last outing of the regular season. Not with Montpellier – facing their own must-win match against Stade Francais at the same time – breathing down their necks for second place and the automatic semi-final berth. The league-leading visitors, who can relax on their 10-point cushion, could give a number of players an extended break. But a slip-up for the hosts in front of their passionate fans would be a disaster.
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