Kenya Lionesses will face Spain in their opening match of the WXV tournament slated for October in Dubai.
In the fixtures released on Friday, Dennis Mwanja's charges will play Spain on October 14, take on Kazakhstan in their second fixture on October 21 before concluding with a clash against Colombia on October 27.
In the meantime, Lionesses are scheduled to play a friendly match in September in Dubai against a yet-to-be-revealed team, financed by World Rugby.
Mwanja said: “One of the things that has cost us in past championships was lack of build-up matches and we are delighted to play one before the tournament kickoffs in order to see where our strengths and weaknesses are."
Kenya qualified for the WXV tournament after finishing second in the Africa Cup tournament held in Madagascar where they finished second behind champions South Africa.
Lionesses beat the hosts 29-20, thrashed Cameroon 52-3 and lost 40-0 to South Africa.
Mwanja said they will have to juggle the squad between the WXV tournament and the Africa Sevens championship which kicks off on October 14.
“It's a tough balancing act I would have preferred the Sevens tournament be played in November but it looks it will be on the same day. We have to use the players available and compete on both fronts,” said Mwanja.
The Africa Sevens championships acts as an Olympic qualifier and will be played in Tunisia over two days (October 14-15) with the winner heading to the Paris Olympics next year while the losing finalist heads to a repechage in June next year.
Mwanja said the squad has work to do on ball handling, defence patterns, and the set piece.
“We have areas to address especially our basic core skills like ball handling, defence patterns and our lineout in order to be competitive at the WXV tournament," he said.
World Rugby are delighted with the WXV tournament which aims to bridge the gap between the leading nations of the world and the upcoming nations.
World Rugby chief of Women’s Rugby, Sally Horrox said: “WXV represents the start of a new era for women’s rugby with the three-level tournament model providing opportunities for the best athletes around the world to show their skills on the international stage. We’ve seen the rapid development of the women’s game in recent years and WXV will push it to another level again."
