Ireland will travel to South Africa for two Test matches in October as part of the new WXV Global Series. <\/p>\n
Scott Bemand’s side will face the Springbok Women at Athlone Stadium in Cape Town on 24 and 31 October. The only previous meeting between the sides was a 2006 Women’s Rugby World Cup match in Canada, which Ireland won 37-0. <\/p>\n
The Irish will also host the USA and Japan in the opening games of the series, which is replacing the WXV competition.<\/p>\n
The fixture against the USA on 20 September will be the first women’s Test match held at Dublin’s Tallaght Stadium, while Galway’s Dexcom Stadium will host the Japan game on 27 September, having been the stage for Ireland’s emphatic win over Italy in this year’s Six Nations.<\/p>\n
Ireland will then host Japan in Cork on 3 October in a Test match outside of the WXV window before travelling to South Africa. <\/p>\n
Bemand said the schedule will be an important step in Ireland’s development as they look to build on a third-place finish in the Six Nations. <\/p>\n
“We’re really excited by the opportunities these fixtures present for the squad,” said Bemand. <\/p>\n
“To have three home matches across Tallaght Stadium, Dexcom Stadium and Virgin Media Park gives us the chance to connect with our supporters right across the country again and build momentum as a group heading into the season ahead.<\/p>\n
“Japan and the USA are quality international teams who will challenge us in different ways, and those experiences are invaluable as we continue to grow and develop. We look forward to welcoming them to Ireland.<\/p>\n
“Our autumn programme then culminates in a two-Test series against South Africa in Cape Town, which will provide another excellent challenge in a demanding environment and is exactly why the addition of the WXV Global Series is invaluable for us.”<\/p>\n
Ireland fixtures <\/p>\n
WXV Global Series (kick-off times TBC)<\/p>\n
Ireland v USA, Tallaght Stadium, 20 September<\/p>\n
Ireland v Japan, Dexcom Stadium, 27 September<\/p>\n
Test match (kick-off time TBC)<\/p>\n
Ireland v Japan, Virgin Media Park, 3 October <\/p>\n
WXV Global Series<\/p>\n
South Africa v Ireland, Athlone Stadium, 24 October (14:00 BST)<\/p>\n
South Africa v Ireland, Athlone Stadium, 31 October (14:00 GMT)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland will travel to South Africa for two Test matches in October as part of the new WXV…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-502453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}