Wallabies skip Pacific tournament

[NewsBot]

Australia decline to send a team to the newly-established IRB Pacific nations tournament.{br}{br}View the Entire Article{br}

[Burgs]

A great shame that Australia could not raise a team but hopefully once the domestic comp takes shape we will be able to take up the offer to join in the future.
With a June kick-off this would give more weight behind holding the APC during the Spring Tour window rather than the Tri Nations window. In either case the Wallabies would be absent but the ARU are denying the opportunity for our next Wallabies to play a variety of opponents and styles and also not pulling its weight in helping to to develop the Pacific Rim Nations. New Zealand have decided this new comp will have greater gain for their players than negative effects for their NPC.
Australia definately needs a more active schedule for the Australia A group to develop more depth leading into '07 and onwards.

http://www.rugby.com.au/news/irb_ann.../section/21893