Fisher questions Australia schedule

ACT Brumbies coach Laurie Fisher has questioned the value of Australia’s Tests against Fiji and Wales in the run-up to next year’s World Cup.

Fisher has accused the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) of looking at the Tests not only as warm-ups for the World Cup but also as a means of revenue, and believes the games could in turn have a negative financial impact on the Super 14.

“Why not just play the Tri-Nations next season and not bother with the Fiji Test and the two Tests against Wales?” Fisher told The Australian.

“You can be guaranteed Wales won’t send its top squad down here, so why not do away with those tests and have a solid six-week block between the end of the Super 14 and the start of the Tri-Nations?

“(For us) it’s not just about winning but about economic survival,” he continued.

“You can’t have George Gregan, Steve Larkham, George Smith, Stirling Mortlock and Mark Gerrard all missing on the one weekend.

“We play Auckland second game up; if 4,000 to 5,000 people decide they’re not going to watch that game because the two teams are sub-standard, that hurts us.”

Fisher has now urged the ARU to give the Australian provincial teams control over how to rest key players during the 2007 Super 14 campaign.

“We’ll have to manage the game time of our senior players,” Fisher said. “Maybe start them off the bench for some matches. But remember, this wasn’t an issue in the past. We won the 1999 World Cup without any of this.”