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England - A plan to end the round of increasingly meaningless end-of-season international rugby tours in which top countries try out second and third string players has met with a mixed reception.
The International Rugby Board on Monday unveiled a new 10-year rotational playing calendar for June which pitches the cream of international world rugby on a rotational basis from 2012.
Northern hemisphere countries will travel to their southern hemisphere counterparts for two or three Test tours. The governing body hopes that the set roster persuades them to take the encounters seriously by fielding their best players.
In recent years, many teams such as France and England have given their big names a break for shorter tours in the southern hemisphere leading to embarrassingly one-sided home victories.
The French coach Marc Lievremont was not so sure that the northern nations would play ball with the plan as it gave his men less time to recover from tiring domestic seasons.
"I'm torn between the will to follow on with the players who won the Six Nations grand slam and the will to give a rest to some of them who had a long and gruelling season," he was quoted as saying in Bordeaux newspaper Sud-Ouest on Tuesday.
In contrast, England manager Martin Johnson told Reuters that the type of tour his team are making to Australia in June, which also includes midweek non-international matches, would give him more chance to bond with his best players.
"The five-match summer tour will be a huge benefit for not only for the coaches but for the players as well," Johnson told Reuters.
"It gives more players the opportunity to play international rugby and benefit from the experience of doing that and it gives the coaches more opportunities to see how players perform at Test and international level.
"I support and welcome the prospect of more tours based on the same criteria."
The IRB also outlined a commitment to develop second-tier nations, with return tours planned to the Pacific Islands, North America and 2019 World Cup hosts Japan.
Under Clive Woodward, England identified southern hemisphere tours as essential building blocks towards their 2003 World Cup triumph.
In 2000 they played two Tests - winning one - and three midweek matches in South Africa while they also won in New Zealand and Australia in June 2003.
On subsequent tours they have often rested some senior players and have not won an away game against the "big three" since.
A similar strategy by France, who also have clashes with their domestic season, has resulted in their losing eight of their previous 11 matches in the Southern Hemisphere.
