Wales will face world champions South Africa at Twickenham in June due to Taylor Swift’s Principality Stadium concert.
The Springboks’ first game since their World Cup triumph in France will take place on June 22 as Wales prepare for their summer tour to Australia.
And the Qatar Airways Cup clash will be followed later the same afternoon by the Barbarians tackling Fiji at English rugby headquarters.
Twickenham last staged a Wales versus South Africa fixture during the 2015 World Cup, when the Springboks won a tense quarter-final 23-19.
Taylor Swift celebrates the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win (PA Wire)
Wales’ normal home in Cardiff is unavailable as Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ continues there on June 18, followed by the Foo Fighters the following week.
After playing the Springboks, Wales then have two Tests against Australia, meeting the Wallabies in Sydney on July 6 and then Melbourne seven days later.
Were a Welsh region to reach this season’s United Rugby Championship final, then Wales would be without those players as it is scheduled to take place on the same day as the Springboks encounter.
Ospreys are the highest-placed Welsh region in seventh spot, with the top eight of 16 teams reaching the play-offs. Cardiff, Scarlets and Dragons are further adrift.
And the same situation would apply to South Africa in the event of securing a URC finalist. Bulls and Stormers are currently second and sixth, respectively.
“I am incredibly excited about the fixture list for Wales this summer,” Wales head coach Warren Gatland said.
“To have the opportunity for our young squad to test itself against the world champions at a neutral venue is an extremely important experience, and something that we will relish.
“We are also excited for the opportunity we have with our two Tests in Australia in July.
“We know the Wallabies will be hurting after the Rugby World Cup (Australia made a pool stage exit), but we are expecting a fired-up side led by new head coach Joe Schmidt.”
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