London Irish will face Munster in a pre-season friendly after narrowly missing out on meeting the Irish province in this season’s Heineken Cup final.

The Exiles will visit Cork on August 29th to play the European champions at Musgrave Park in the club’s final warm-up match before the start of the new season on 6th September.

The Exiles’ first pre-season trial will be played at Sunbury on Friday 15th August when a London Irish XV will take on Nottingham from National Division One. The following day a strong London Irish team will participate in the Middlesex Sevens at Twickenham.

Forwards Coach Toby Booth said: “There is nothing like real match action for putting pre-season preparations to the test. These fixtures will enable our squad to measure themselves against competitive opposition and give our supporters a taste of what they can expect when the season starts.”