SCOTLAND will face Ireland in Yokohama to open their 2019 World Cup campaign.
The fixtures for the showcase in Japan were confirmed on Thursday with just under two years to go until the tournament kicks off.
Gregor Townsend's side will face top seed Ireland on Sunday 22 September, before facing the play-off winner on Monday 30 September.
In round three, the Scots take on Europe 1 on Wednesday 9 October.
The pool stage fixtures will then come to a close with a high-stakes clash against the hosts back in Yokohama on Sunday 13 October.
World Rugby designed the match schedule to ensure that tier two teams can optimise rest days ahead of games against tier one nations and World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper was pleased with the outcome.
He said: “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.
“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.”
Quarter-final fixtures will be played on 19 and 20 October before two semi-finals on 26 and 26 October.
The bronze medal match will then take place on Friday 1 November before the tournament reaches its climax with the final at the International Stadium in Yokohama on Saturday 2 November.
Scotland’s RWC 2019 schedule
Round One: Sunday 22 September – Ireland v Scotland; International Stadium, Yokohama (kick-off 4.45pm)
Round Two: Monday 30 September – Scotland v Play-Off Winner; Kobe Misaki Stadium (kick-off 7.15pm)
Round Three: Wednesday 9 October – Scotland v Europe 1; Shizuoka Stadium Ecopa (kick-off 4.15pm)
Round Four: Sunday 13 October – Japan v Scotland; International Stadium Yokohama (kick-off 7.45pm)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here