Warriors have a pre-season friendly at home to Wasps on August 28 followed by the meetings with Munster & Scarlets on the weekends of September 4-5 and 12-13.

Warriors head coach Sean Lineen said: “It’s fantastic. Playing the reigning champions at Firhill really focuses the mind.

“We lost against them last season at home with a fairly average performance so this is an opportunity for us to be totally and utterly focused.

“There’s nothing better than having the champions coming to your home patch.

“Firhill can be an intimidating pitch. We were unbeaten there for a year when I first came on board and we want to make sure we leave no stone unturned in making Firhill our fortress.”

Lineen is relishing the prospect of challenging for the new end-of-season play-offs which will feature the league’s top four.

“Every team is going to be aiming for the play-offs and we are focused on getting to that stage,” he added.