Wales hoping their luck will hold in a Friday 13th opener

WALES will kick off the new Autumn Nations Cup tournament with a November 13 Friday night clash with Ireland.

The game takes place at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin with a 7pm kick-off, the start of what officials are dubbing an ‘outstanding’ competition ‘featuring some of the best players in the world.’

The tournament, which involves the Six Nations sides plus Fiji and Georgia, has been mooted for some time.

But details have now been provided of how it will work and where matches will be played.

Wales are in Group A with Ireland, Georgia and old enemy England.

Group B comprises of France, Scotland, Italy and Fiji.

Wayne Pivac’s men follow the Friday night Irish opener with a home game against Georgia on Saturday, November 21, and then another home clash with England on Saturday, November 28.

They have a third home game to wrap up the tournament on Saturday, December 5, either the final or a play-off against opponents who finish in the same position in the other group. England play the last match the following day at Twickenham in what Eddie Jones will obviously hope will prove to be the final himself.

No venue has yet been announced for Wales’ home games as they continue to explore the option of playing them at a Premier League football ground in London.

Some of the matches involving other countries also have ‘venue to be confirmed’ against them.

The order of the fixtures gives Pivac’s men the chance of revenge over Ireland and England, having lost to the pair of them in the Six Nations.

Wales went down 24-14 to the Irish, before narrowly succumbing 33-30 to England.

Six Nations bosses say the “completely new and innovative tournament” has been put together after painstaking work behind the scenes to replace the traditional autumn Tests.

They describe it as ensuring ‘rugby fans throughout the world will be treated to top-class international rugby this autumn.’

Details on spectators being able to attend the matches will be given in due course, say the Six Nations officials.

A broadcaster for the tournament is yet to be announced, but there is strong speculation Amazon Prime are interested in breaking into the rugby market and are making a multi-million pounds bid for the rights.

Commenting on the new tournament, Six Nations chief executive Ben Morel said: “We are absolutely delighted to formally announce details.

“A significant amount of time and effort has gone into delivering this new tournament format in testing circumstances and the spirit of collaboration amongst key stakeholders has been outstanding. “While the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic made the traditional Autumn Test window unfeasible, we remained determined to deliver a unique and compelling tournament proposition which would ensure world class rugby for our fans globally, and competitive matches for players, unions and federations.

“We cannot wait for the tournament to get underway in November and fans can look forward to some outstanding matches featuring some of the greatest players in the world.

“We are especially pleased to be joined by Fiji and Georgia and expect them to be tremendous additions to the competition.”