RUGBY: Wallabies ready to play in Japan in 2017

Fiji's hooker Talemaitoga Tuapati (L) tackles Australia's flanker Michael Hooper during a Pool A match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup between Australia and Fiji at the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, south Wales, on September 23, 2015. AFP PHOTO /

The Wallabies and Japan will do battle in an international fixture in the Asian nation next year, it has been confirmed.

Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and Japan Rugby Football Union (JRFU) announced the clash yesterday, with the Test scheduled for November 4, 2017 at a venue yet to be determined.

While Australia have played one Test in Japan previously - a 32-19 Bledisloe Cup defeat to New Zealand in 2009 - it will be the first meeting between the two teams on Japanese soil.

“This test match will be an historic occasion as the Qantas Wallabies play their first Test match against Japan on Japanese soil, less than two years before Japan hosts its first ever Rugby World Cup in 2019,” ARU chief executive Bill Pulver said in a statement.