AUSTRALIA yesterday threatened to scrap their scheduled international against Wales at Cardiff Arms Park on December 1st if they are not given an autumn date by the four home unions on which to play a Test against England.

John O'Neill, the Australian RFU chief executive, has given the seemingly interminable saga of strife involving England a fresh twist by, in effect, holding the home unions tours committee to ransom.

Australia would prefer to play England at Twickenham on November 2nd or 16th, having failed to persuade the tours committee to allow an England fixture to take precedence on December 7th over their scheduled game against the Barbarians. With Tests already arranged against Wales, Scotland and Ireland, the Wallabies, are eager to set up the opportunity to achieve a Grand Slam.

The threat to the Wales match has been issued largely because Ray Williams, the Welsh chairman of the tours committee, recently insisted: "It is not possible to change the international calendar at such short notice." Williams spoke of "insurmountable difficulties" in finding a date to fit England in and pointed out that more than 30,000 tickets had been sold for Australia's traditional end of tour game against the Barbarians at Twickenham.

Setting aside the potentially embarrassing question of whether the RFU will have the England squad under contract by November and will be in a position to put out a first choice team, England are desperately keen to play a Test against Australia after the five year hiatus that has elapsed since they lost 12-7 in the 1991 World Cup final.