Ireland to play four warm-up games in South Africa

Ireland have confirmed four matches in South Africa as part of their preparation for the World Cup Qualifier tournament.

Ireland start their games in Pretoria against a Northerns/Easterns XI on 15 February.

Netherlands are next up on 18 February before Scotland two days later and then Hong Kong on 23 February.

Ireland will be chasing a fourth straight qualification success at the tournament in Zimbabwe.

The 15-man squad will spend two weeks based at a preparation camp at Tuks High Performance Centre at the University of Pretoria.

This is good practice for Ireland, before they go play in the World Cup qualifier tournament. Also it is a great time to really get your stuff together and work hard at this preparation camp-because the margin of error is very small when they get to the World Cup qualifier !