LONDON (Reuters) - Wales will play France on a Friday for the second time in next year's Six Nations championship with Cardiff hosting a late evening kickoff on February 26 (8 p.m.).
The two teams met in Paris this season in the first Friday kickoff in the championship's history.
Grand slam champions Ireland will kick off the tournament with a home clash against Ireland on February 6 (2:30 p.m.), according to the fixture list released by the Six Nations Council on Thursday.
England and Wales will then celebrate 100 years of rivalry at Twickenham later on the opening Saturday (5 p.m.).
The original five members of the European championship, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France, have competed against each other since the first tournament in 1910.
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This year's Friday night clash between France and Wales in Paris proved popular with television audiences and organisers hope for a similar response at the Millennium Stadium.
"Wales is delighted to be involved in the ongoing experiment in the fixture schedule which means we accommodate France at the Millennium Stadium on Friday 26 February," Welsh Rugby Union and Six Nations chairman David Pickering said in a statement.
"The match in Paris last year generated the biggest TV audience for a game in France at an average audience of 5.9 million and TV audiences throughout the UK, Ireland and Italy were the second largest of all the fifteen tournament games, at 11 million."
Ireland, who clinched their first grand slam for 61 years with a tense victory over Wales last month, have home games against Italy, Wales and Scotland with away visits to Paris and Twickenham.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by John Mehaffey, to query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
