The United Rugby Championship fixtures for the inaugural season of the rebooted Pro14 have been announced, with defending champions Leinster, and Munster, handed tasty opening round matches.
Leo Cullen's Leinster will take on three-time Super Rugby winners, the Vodacom Bulls, at the Aviva Stadium while Munster will welcome the Cell-C Sharks to Thomond Park (Live on RTÉ).
Connacht will travel to Cardiff, while Ulster will host Glasgow at Kingspan Stadium.
The opening round of matches will take place on the weekend of 24-26 September.
Elsewhere, the DHL Stormers face Rainbow Cup winners Benetton in Treviso and the Emirates Lions travel to Parma to take on Zebre.
Edinburgh will host Scarlets in their new stadium in the Scottish capital, while the first Welsh derby of the season takes place between the Dragons and Ospreys.
RTÉ Sport and TG4 will broadcast over 50 free-to-air games for the inaugural United Rugby Championship, with RTÉ's first broadcast coming from Thomond Park - a 7.35pm kick-off between Johann van Graan's men and the Sharks.
Munster v Connacht on 16 October at Thomond Park is the first Irish derby of the season, with the first of the traditional festive match-ups occurring on St Stephen's Day - Ulster v Connacht and Munster v Leinster.
Connacht host Munster and Leinster travel to Ulster on New Year's Day.
The full list of fixtures is available here.
