Scotland and Wales’ fixtures this weekend are outside World Rugby’s official international window, so they will be without players who play their domestic rugby in another country.
Windows exist in globally agreed periods where international rugby games take place. In spring, European sides tend to tour, while Europe generally hosts at this time of year.
Any Test match that takes place outside of the agreed windows therefore faces player restrictions and potentially weakened sides.
The reasons as to why these anomalous matches take place are usually two-fold, a need to boost the coffers, and exposure, but there are also consequences.
That means Wales, who face the All Blacks on Saturday, will be missing the likes of Dan Biggar and Louis Rees-Zammit, all to the detriment of their chances of winning.
Captain Alun Wyn Jones will lead his side to the field, in front of a capacity crowd for the first time since February 2019, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and in doing so will become the most capped international rugby player [for any country] of all time.
Jones will make his 149th appearance for Wales on Saturday, surpassing Richie McCaw’s record of 148 appearances for New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Scotland will be without their captain Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell, Jonny Gray and more for their match against Tonga at Murrayfield.
They will be represented by Co-Captains for the first time as Glasgow Warriors and British & Irish Lion Ali Price and Edinburgh Rugby’s Jamie Ritchie both lead the team.
Where to watch the Autumn Nations Series:
Prime members can watch the Autumn Nations Series live from 30th October with the Prime Video app on TVs, mobile devices, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Fire tablets, games consoles, on Virgin’s V6 TV Box, the Talk Talk TV set top box, Apple TV, Chromecast, BT TV or online.
For a list of all compatible devices visit amazon.co.uk/watchanywhere.
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