RUGBY: Ireland will play Scotland and Italy next summer as part of their preparations for the Rugby World Cup that will take place in France in September and October 2007.

Ireland will begin their warm-up programme at Murrayfield on Saturday, August 11th, when they take on Scotland and will follow this with a match against Italy, at Ravenhill in Belfast, on the weekend of August 24-26th.This will be only the second home international Ireland has played outside of Lansdowne Road in the last 53 years.

The games against Scotland and Italy will be the final fixtures of a 12-match schedule for Ireland in advance of their opening World Cup match on September 9th in Bordeaux against the African qualifying team.

In addition to the World Cup warm-up games, Ireland will play three November internationals against South Africa, Australia and the Pacific Islands. These will be followed by five games in the Six Nations Championship and two games next summer against Argentina in South America.