Round 1 of the End Of Year Tours of 2013 is upon us and it is that time of the year where we see the teams from the South migrate to the North to go do battle with those from Europe and beyond.

The Test rugby games of the End Of Year Tours or November Internationals are always a nice spectacle to see. Some teams use this as an experimental base, whilst other teams use this competition to prepare for other competitions like the 6 Nations. The big thing here is that the 3 Southern Hemisphere giant teams are ranked No 1 to 3 in the world. So, every team wants to beat these sides for bragging rights and to also get an indication of where they stand in preparation of the next Rugby World Cup.

So let the battles begin!

Here’s a Preview of the weekend’s matches:

Match 1

Japan vs New Zealand

Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium
02 November 2013
k/o: 07:00 SATime (14:00 Japan Time, 18:00 NZ Time, 05:00 GMT)

Japan: 15 Ayumu Goromaru, 14 Toshiaki Hirose, 13 Male Sau, 12 Craig Wing, 11 Kenki Fukuoka, 10 Harumichi Tatekawa, 9 Fumiaki Tanaka, 8 Ryu Koliniasi Holani, 7 Michael Broadhurst, 6 Hendrik Tui, 5 Hitoshi Ono, 4 Shoji Ito, 3 Kensuke Hatakeyama, 2 Shota Horie, 1 Masataka Mikami.
Replacements: 16: Yusuke Aoki, 17 Yusuke Nagae, 18 Hiroshi Yamashita, 19 Luke Thompson, 20 Takashi Kikutani, 21 Kosei Ono, 22 Yu Tamura, 23 Yoshikazu Fujita.

New Zealand: 15 Beauden Barrett, 14 Charles Piutau, 13 Ben Smith, 12 Francis Saili, 11 Frank Halai, 10 Dan Carter, 9 Tawera Kerr-Barlow, 8 Richie McCaw (Captain), 7 Sam Cane, 6 Steven Luatua, 5 Dominic Bird, 4 Jeremy Thrush, 3 Ben Franks, 2 Dane Coles, 1 Wyatt Crockett.
Replacements: 16 Andrew Hore, 17 Jeffery Toomaga-Allen, 18 Charlie Faumuina, 19 Brodie Retallick, 20 Luke Whitelock, 21 Aaron Smith, 22 Tom Taylor, 23 Ryan Crotty.

These sides have only met twice in history and I recon all of us know what the outcomes have been. I cannot see this outcome ever changing. It is usually in these matches where the big name teams does some experimentation and play players out of position, just to see if they would fit in there, for future reference. As usual we will see the whole world support the Japanese, just because we feel sorry to see them running around looking like a bunch of primary school kids playing against a national side.

So let’s get down to business: 2 Previous games played between the sides, both games won comprehensively by New Zealand. Total points scored by New Zealand is 228, total scored by Japan is 24. Average score between these sides is a massive 114-12 for New Zealand. This will probably be a bit lower on the weekend as New Zealand is fielding an experimental side. So, a score prediction of 100-12 will be more likely.

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Match 2

England vs Australia

Twickenham, London
2 November 2013
16:30 SA Time (14:30 GMT, 01:30 Sunday AEDT)

England: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Joel Tomkins, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Marland Yarde, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Billy Vunipola, 7 Chris Robshaw (Captain), 6 Tom Wood, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3  Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Mako Vunipola.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Joe Marler, 18 David Wilson, 19 Dave Attwood, 20 Ben Morgan, 21 Ben Youngs, 22 Toby Flood, 23 Ben Foden.

Australia: 15 Israel Folau, 14 Adam Ashley-Cooper, 13 Tevita Kuridrani, 12 Matt Toomua, 11 Nick Cummins, 10 Quade Cooper, 9 Will Genia, 8 Ben Mowen (Captain), 7 Michael Hooper, 6 Scott Fardy, 5 James Horwill, 4 Sitaleki Timani, 3 Ben Alexander, 2 Stephen Moore, 1 James Slipper.
Replacements: 16 Saia Fainga’a, 17 Benn Robinson, 18 Sekope Kepu, 19 Kane Douglas, 20 Ben McCalman, 21 Nic White, 22 Christian Leali’ifano, 23 Bernard Foley.

This will most likely be the contest of the weekend, as these are the only strong sides playing each other.

These sides have met 41 times, with the Australia winning 24 compared to England’s 16 and only 1 draw. Australia edge this one in the stats having scored 877 points compared to England’s 615, which would suggest Australia to win with  a score of 21-15. This has however not been a stellar season for Australia and they are off form, so we could see England take this one. The English are a difficult side to beat at Twickenham, so my prediction remains 21-15 but in favour of England.

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Match 3

Canada vs New Zealand Maori

BMO Field, Toronto, Canada
03 November 2013
20:00 SA Time (18:00 GMT, 13:00 CAN)

These sides have met only 3 times in the past and once again the results are obvious. Total points scored by the Maoris is 154 against the 59 by Canada. It is doubtful that the outcome will be any different to the previous 3 encounters. A scoreline close to 65-27 for the Maoris will be the most likely outcome.