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Wayne Smith | November 03, 2008
AUSTRALIA is gearing up this month to resist another attempt by the International Rugby Board to take the easy way out in establishing an integrated global season by persuading SANZAR to switch the Tri-Nations series to February.
The idea was first mooted at the post-World Cup brainstorming session in England last November but not treated especially seriously because a February time slot would schedule Test rugby before the Super 14 competition.
Certainly it would have suited the northern hemisphere heavyweights to have the Tri-Nations fall into line with the scheduling of the Six Nations championship, but it would seem to be unworkable for Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Undeterred by the lukewarm response from SANZAR, the IRB is understood to be planning to raise the idea at a little-publicised meeting of the 10 tier one nations - those involved in the Tri-Nations and Six Nations championships plus Argentina - in London on November 11.
It is certain to be discussed in tandem with the June and November Test windows which currently favour northern hemisphere nations which send sub-standard teams to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the southern winter then host full-strength Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks teams in November.
"It's a window that doesn't work, at least not for us," said ARU chief executive John O'Neill, who has threatened more than once to retaliate by cancelling the June tour and demanding a cut of the gates whenever the Wallabies play in Britain or Europe.
O'Neill, meanwhile, would not indicate how big a cut of the Hong Kong Bledisloe Cup gate Australia would receive but insisted the three partners in Saturday's venture, Australia, NZ and Hong Kong, all had come away delighted with the outcome.
O'Neill spent Saturday morning in discussions with officials of the Japanese Rugby Union, which has expressed interest not only in staging a similar Bledisloe Test in 2010 but also in fielding a Tokyo-based team in an expanded Super rugby competition.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html