Ireland will face Scotland in their opening Rugby World Cup 2019 fixture
Thursday 2 November 2017 11:01, UK
Ireland will play Scotland and Japan in their first two games of Rugby World Cup 2019 in Pool A.
The fixture schedule, which was confirmed on Thursday, sees a role reversal for Joe Schmidt's team from the last World Cup in 2015, when their two most difficult pool matches against Italy and France were their last fixtures.
Scotland defeated Ireland in the 2017 Six Nations at Murrayfield 27-22, and their Pool A clash at the International Stadium in Yokohama on September 22 could go a long way to deciding who will top the group.
After opening their World Cup against Scotland, Ireland will then travel to Shizuoka to face hosts Japan six days later on Saturday September 29.
Ireland toured Japan in the summer and picked up 55-22 and 35-5 victories in a two-Test series with 11 players absent on British and Irish Lions duty.
They will face an as yet undetermined European qualifier in Kobe on Thursday, October 3 in their third pool game, before closing out Pool A with a clash against a play-off winner in Fukuoka on Saturday, October 12, who is also yet to be confirmed.
The winners and runners-up from Pool A will play the top two from Pool B in the quarter-final stage, which contains New Zealand, South Africa and Italy.
"The development of the match schedule is an important milestone for what will be a very special Rugby World Cup. Throughout this rigorous process, we have had participating team experience for teams and fans at heart," World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper said.
"We have worked hard to deliver a match schedule that improves on the Rugby World Cup 2015 model, delivering a more balanced spread of matches across the four weeks of pool matches and greater rest periods for the emerging rugby nations ahead of matches against the top-ranked teams.
"These are the foundations that will assist the world's top players to perform to their best in Japan."
Confirmation of the 2019 World Cup fixtures comes in the same week that Ireland lost out on a World Rugby Council recommendation to host the 2023 tournament, which went to South Africa.
