Sale Sharks will play next year's Premiership home match against London Irish at the Reebok Stadium.

The stadium is home to Premier League side Bolton Wanderers and holds a capacity of 28,200.

Attendances at Sale's Edgeley Park ground have fallen in recent years and their opening two Premiership fixture attracted fewer than 8,000 fans.

But the club are targeting a sell-out at the game, which is to be played on Saturday, 16 April 2011 at 1730 BST.

The Reebok has previously hosted rugby league matches but this will be the first game of rugby union played on the ground.

We want to show the North West some real ambition and give the region a rugby team that they can truly be proud to support. Sale's chief executive Mick Hogan

Sale chief executive Mick Hogan said: "Today's announcement is the culmination of nearly 12 months of work.

"We now have four months to achieve a sell out crowd, and I truly believe that there are almost 30,000 people in the North West who would like to attend a live game of Sale Sharks' rugby.

"We want to show the North West some real ambition and give the region a rugby team that they can truly be proud to support.

"This isn't a one-off either, we have an agreement with Bolton that will see us bring a Premiership game to the Reebok Stadium over each of the next three seasons."

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