With the Rugby World Cup 2019 Pool Allocation Draw set to take place in May next year the forthcoming November internationals take on added significance.

This is especially so for the southern hemisphere’s leading nations who won’t be in action again until next June following the conclusion of their respective tours to Europe, and in the case of New Zealand, a short stopover in the USA, which means they need to bank as many World Rugby Rankings rating points as they can over the next four weeks.

Chicago, home of the newly-crowned World Series baseball champions, the Cubs, plays host to rugby's world champions this weekend as the All Blacks take on Ireland at Soldier Field.

By ending a 108-year wait to win the World Series title, the Cubs have shown Ireland that anything is possible – even against the side on the verge of setting a new world record for 19 consecutive test wins. Ireland’s drought against the All Blacks stretches back even further, to 1905, when they first met at Lansdowne Road in Dublin.

USA will play the Maori All Blacks the day before, at Toyota Park, to begin an historic double-header weekend of international rugby in Chicago. Like South Africa’s clash against the Barbarians at Wembley Stadium on Saturday, this is a non-capped match and the result will therefore not affect the rankings.

Two other matches do have rankings implications, though. RWC 2019 hosts Japan have an opportunity to break into the world’s top 10 with victory over an Argentinean side who have slipped down to ninth after their bottom-of-the-table finish in The Rugby Championship, while there will be a determined effort from Wales to end an eight-year wait for victory against the Wallabies when the two nations meet at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday.

IRELAND V NEW ZEALAND

With Sam Whitelock (sprained ankle) and Brodie Retallick (concussion) sidelined and Luke Romano returning home due to a family bereavement, the All Blacks’ second-row resources have been stretched thin. As a result loose forward Jerome Kaino is selected in the position for the first time in his 75-cap career with Liam Squire wearing the six jersey vacated by Kaino.

Cover from the bench will come from uncapped 22-year-old Scott Barrett, the younger brother of starting fly-half Beauden. If called upon, Barrett junior will become All Black number 1,155. 

There could even be two sets of brothers on the field at the same time as Ardie Savea, brother of winger Julian, is also among the replacements. The last time that happened was in 1961. Julian Savea reaches the 50-cap milestone against the same opposition that he scored a hat-trick against on debut in 2012.

Kieran Read captains the side from number eight, while his Irish counterpart Rory Best will draw level with Peter Stringer on 98 appearances as Ireland's fifth most-capped player after being named at hooker.

He is joined in the front row by Tadhg Furlong and Jack McGrath. Devin Toner and Donnacha Ryan are paired in the engine room with Jordi Murphy and CJ Stander on the flanks either side of Jamie Heaslip.

Conor Murray starts at scrum-half with Johnny Sexton returning to the No.10 jersey having missed the South African tour due to injury. Robbie Henshaw and Jared Payne are re-united in midfield while Andrew Trimble and Simon Zebo fill the wing positions with Rob Kearney at full-back.

With Paddy Jackson missing the US trip due to personal reasons, Leinster youngster Joey Carbery is in line to make his test debut if brought on from the bench.

In brief

  • Ireland have never beaten New Zealand in 28 attempts. Exactly half of those meetings have taken place this century
  • Saturday's test will be the second time the All Blacks have played in Chicago. The team played the USA here in 2014, winning 74-6.
  • Ireland and New Zealand drew 10-10 at Lansdowne Road in January 1973, after Tom Grace chased down his own chip to touch down in the corner. Ireland could have snatched victory but Barry McCann’s conversion drifted wide
  • New Zealand’s biggest win over Ireland is the 60-0 victory they achieved at Waikato in 2012
  • Andy Farrell was defence coach when England beat the All Blacks in 2012 and is now hoping to mastermind the same result in his role with Ireland

Rankings predictor

Should Ireland achieve an historic win over the All Blacks, they will gain between two to three rating points, depending on the margin of victory, and will move above Wales into fifth place in the rankings, unless Wales beat Australia by more than 15 points. Ireland could climb as high as fourth, but that would require a win by more than 15 points over the world champions. A victorious New Zealand will not gain any points due to the size of the gap (14.90 rating points) between the nations in the rankings.

JAPAN V ARGENTINA

Argentina head coach Daniel Hourcade makes four changes – two in the back and two in the forwards – to the side beaten by Australia at Twickenham in the final round of the Rugby Championship. Both changes in the pack come in the back row, with Tomas Lezana and Facundo Isa drafted in at blindside flanker and number eight respectively. Nicolas Sanchez returns to the No.10 jersey in place of Santiago Iglesias Gonzalez, while Santiago Cordero is preferred to Ramiro Moyano on the left wing.

Sevens star Lomano Lemeki (pictured), scorer of 13 tries in last season’s HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, is one of 13 uncapped players included in new Japan head coach Jamie Joseph’s first match-day 23. Loose-head prop Satoshi Nakatani is another to make his international bow, at the grand old age of 35. He is joined in the squad by Yahama Jubilo team-mates and fellow rookies, Uwe Helu, Yuhimaru Mimura, Koko Yamamoto and Heiichiro Ito.

Following the home test against Argentina, Japan travel to Georgia and Wales to take on those countries and they finish their end-of-season campaign against Fiji in Vannes, France, on 27 November.

In brief

  • This is the first meeting between the nations in 11 years and the first in Japan since 1998, when Japan recorded their only win: 44-29 in Tokyo
  • Argentina scored a record 68 points (68-36) in the last meeting, on 23 April 2005 in Buenos Aires
  • Argentina are on a run of four consecutive defeats
  • Canada are the only tier one or two nation Japan have beaten since RWC 2015
  • Los Pumas captain Agustin Creevy made his international debut against Japan 11 years ago

Rankings predictor

Any form of victory for the home side would result in Japan returning to the world’s top 10, a position they held for the first time in their history back in June 2014. Fiji and Georgia would drop one place if the Brave Blossoms prevail. Even the narrowest of wins would be enough for Argentina to climb above both Scotland and France into seventh.

WALES V AUSTRALIA

Rob Howley has named a squad packed with experience as Wales look to put an 11-match winless run against the Wallabies to bed. Gethin Jenkins, Wales’ most-capped player of all-time, leads a side that boasts 802 caps between them, with the prop accounting for 126.

Wales name an all British and Irish Lions midfield and back three with Jamie Roberts partnering Jonathan Davies in the centre and Leigh Halfpenny making his first appearance for his country since injury ended his RWC 2015 hopes last September, alongside George North and Alex Cuthbert.

There are two uncapped players named among the replacements in Ospreys fly-half Sam Davies, the World Rugby Junior Player of the Year in 2013, and Newport Gwent Dragons second-row Cory Hill.

Australia have a front-row centurion of their own in hooker Stephen Moore, who will captain Australia in their 600th test.  

For this historic occasion, head coach Michael Cheika has made two changes to his starting XV from the team that defeated Argentina in the final round of the Rugby Championship.

David Pocock will wear the No.6 jersey for the first time in his 61-test career, while centre Tevita Kuridrani moves into another new-look midfield.

Waratahs hooker Tolu Latu has been named on the replacements bench, hoping to become the Wallabies' 12th debutant of 2016.

In brief

  • Since they last beat Australia, in Cardiff eight years ago, Wales have played the Wallabies 11 times and lost all 11
  • Gethin Jenkins captains Wales for the seventh time, and the third time against Australia
  • Tevita Kuridrani and Reece Hodge are the sixth different midfield partnership to be used by Australia in 2016
  • The average winning margin in the last 10 matches between the two is just under five points
  • Overall, Australia have won 28, Wales 10 and there has been one draw
  • Australia are conceding on average more points per game (29) in 2016 than any other year in their test history

Rankings predictor

A long-awaited win for Wales over Australia would cement their position in fifth place unless Ireland were to pull off a shock win in Chicago. Wales need to beat Australia by more than 15 points to claim fourth spot and relegate the current third ranked team to fifth place in the process.

Australia, who spent the duration of the Rugby Championship yo-yoing between third and fourth in the rankings, would reduce the points deficit between themselves and second-placed England to just over three points if they were to continue their winning run against Wales. Should they buck the trend of recent close matches and win by more than 15, they would gain 1.53 points and move onto 86.86 – 2.63 fewer than England.

RWC 2019 QUALIFIERS

The road to Japan 2019 begins for the Netherlands on Saturday when they take on Ukraine in the newly-named Rugby Europe Trophy, which is part of the regional Rugby World Cup qualification process.

Europe's third tier competition got underway back in September with a 22-0 win for Poland against Ukraine, who will be hoping to put the record straight when they host the Dutch in Lviv.

Given the Netherlands are ranked 35th and Ukraine 28th, a win for the away side would lead to quite a bit of movement in the rankings. The Netherlands could even be the higher-ranked of the two nations when the rankings are updated at 12:00 GMT on Monday as a win by more than 15 points would propel them up to 30th with Ukraine dropping to 33rd on the back of a loss of 2.45  points. It is not possible for Ukraine to overhaul Chile, in 27th, even if they win by a margin of more than 15 points.

Elsewhere in Europe, Lithuania play Latvia and Luxembourg take on Sweden in Conference 1 North, while Israel host Croatia in Conference 1 South and Serbia are at home to Turkey in Conference 2 South.