Ireland to host Six Nations champions Wales in 2022 opener

Ireland will open the 2022 Six Nations Championship against the defending champions Wales at the Aviva stadium on Saturday, February 5th. Wayne Pivac's Welsh side were only denied a Grand Slam when succumbing to a late French rally in Paris in the final match.

Kick-off times will be announced once the tournament organisers have reached agreement with television companies. Virgin Media Television’s four year contract (2018-2021) for the Irish live broadcast rights to the northern hemisphere’s premier rugby competition concluded with the latest iteration of the tournament.

The company said recently that they are “optimistic” they can retain the rights but are likely to face stiff competition from the national broadcaster RTÉ who are looking to reclaim lost ground in live rugby broadcast terms, potentially in both next season’s Pro 16 and future Six Nations tournaments.

Next season’s Six Nations offers a very similar fixture schedule from an Irish perspective to the 2016 tournament when Ireland’s first two matches were against Wales and France with a game against Scotland on the final weekend. The national side has four Saturday fixtures with, one against Italy in Dublin, on a Sunday; they have a week off either side of that game.

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Andy Farrell’s Ireland must travel to Paris and London in that order in what is traditionally the more difficult set of fixtures. The visit of champions Wales to Dublin is likely to be the first game on the Saturday with England’s trip to Murrayfield given the prime late evening television slot.

Ireland play France in Paris seven days later before hosting Scotland in Dublin on the final Sunday in February. Wales and France meet in the only Friday night fixture on March 11th.

The following day Eddie Jones’s England team will welcome the Irish to Twickenham and on Super Saturday, a week later on March 19th, Ireland’s clash with Scotland is likely to be the middle game of three with the tournament concluding with ‘Le Crunch,’ the France versus England game in Paris.

2022 Six Nations Fixtures

(all kick-off times to be confirmed)
FEBRUARY
Saturday 5th
Ireland v Wales, Aviva Stadium
Scotland v England, Murrayfield

Sunday 6th
France v Italy, Stade de France

Saturday 12th
Wales v Scotland, Principality Stadium
France v Ireland, Stade de France

Sunday 13th
Italy v England, Stadio Olimpico

Saturday 26th
Scotland v France, Murrayfield
England v Wales, Twickenham

Sunday 27th
Ireland v Italy, Aviva Stadium

MARCH
Friday 11th
Wales v France, Principality Stadium

Saturday 12th
Italy v Scotland, Stadio Olimpico
England v Ireland, Twickenham

Saturday 19th
Wales v Italy, Principality Stadium
Ireland v Scotland, Aviva Stadium
France v England, Stade de France