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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Matthew Southcombe

Welsh rugby pre-season fixtures in full as Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets prepare for Anglo-Welsh showdowns

The rugby season finally finished last weekend following the completion of the summer tours.

But even before Wales finished their trip to South Africa, the club sides were already back in for pre-season training at home. It really does feel like the seasons never end these days.

And it's about to get even tougher as the best players prepare for a relentless 12 months that will culminate in the Rugby World Cup in France next autumn.

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There is a lot of water to pass under the bridge between now and then and it starts towards the end of next month. As pre-season schedules go, Welsh clubs have set up a pretty mouth-watering set of fixtures, with a real Anglo-Welsh flavour to them.

Bristol (twice), Wasps and Northampton will all be coming to play games in Wales, with Cardiff popping over the border to take on Gloucester.

Northampton will be taking on the Ospreys in Bridgend on September 2, which is being coined the Dan Biggar derby, but it remains to be seen whether the man himself will actually feature in the match. With the Gallagher Premiership getting underway a week later, he may well do. The same goes for Louis Rees-Zammit for Cardiff's trip to Kingsholm.

Likewise, you'd expect Callum Sheedy and Ioan Lloyd to feature for Bristol when they head to Llanelli a week before their season gets started.

Here are the pre-season fixtures that have been pencilled in before the next instalment of the United Rugby Championship kicks off in mid-September:

Hartpury v Ospreys, August 20, 2pm

Dragons v Bristol, August 26, 7pm

Dragons v Wasps, September 2, 7pm

Ospreys v Northampton, September 2, 7pm

Scarlets v Bristol, September 2, 7pm

Gloucester v Cardiff, September 2, 7:45pm

Cardiff v Zebre, September 9, TBC

Scarlets v Dragons, September 9, TBC

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