World Rugby has announced that the draw for the pool stages of the 2019 Rugby World Cup will be held in May of next year.
Tournaments hosts, Japan were hoping to have the draw at the end of his year, which could have been a set-back to Ireland's prospects of a favourable seeding.
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Joe Schmidt's side are facing into a tough run of fixtures for the rest of 2016 – including three summer Tests against South Africa and two November internationals against New Zealand.
The 2017 Six Nations will now be the final chance for northern hemisphere teams to improve on their world rankings before the pool draw is held.
