WORCESTER Warriors will open their pre-season campaign with a trip to French giants ASM Clermont Auvergne next month.

The French side, who finished the 2015/16 Top 14 season at the top of the table, will provide Warriors with a stern test on Friday, August 12 (7pm BST).

The friendly, which was first revealed by the Worcester News yesterday, is being played at the Jacques Lavédrine complex in Issoire.

It will conclude Warriors’ training camp in Tignes, where the players will be undergoing a rigorous pre-season regime at high altitude.

Carl Hogg’s Warriors will head to Championship outfit Jersey for their second warm-up match on Saturday, August 20 before travelling to Ireland to face Munster on Friday, August 26.

Warriors head coach Carl Hogg said: “Facing the side who finished first in the Top 14 last season will provide us with a significant test and will give us an opportunity to integrate the players who have joined us over the summer.

“Our players will be well into their preparations for the new season by the time we face Clermont and will have just finished an intense 12-day training camp at altitude so the match will give us a good indication of where we are as a team.”

Warriors are playing their friendlies away from home because a new state-of-the-art artificial pitch is being laid at Sixways.

The Aviva Premiership fixtures are being released tomorrow at 11am and chief executive Jim O’Toole has asked for their first match to be away from home.

The opening round of Premiership will take place over the first weekend in September.

Work on Warriors’ artificial pitch is a week ahead of schedule and expected to be completed in the middle of August.