All Blacks: Tew in tangle over European tour plan

The All Blacks' end-of-year tour has run into double trouble.

The tourists want to complete their Northern Hemisphere games by the end of November so the players can have their last decent layoff before the Super 15 and World Cup season.

The All Blacks are due to meet Scotland, Ireland and Wales on the last three weekends in November but England say they cannot play on November 6 and want that match to be held on December 4.

Meanwhile the All Blacks' idea of playing the Wallabies in Hong Kong or Japan on October 30 leaves them with problems for the following weekend. They cannot shift the Wallabies test forward as the Australians have agreed to play Wales on that date.

"That has created scheduling issues," New Zealand chief executive Steve Tew said. "We want our guys back because we think we stayed a week too long in the UK last year. The Barbarians game was a stretch."

It had been worthwhile financially and a chance to give the rest of the squad a run but the tour had been drawn out at the end of a long season.

Tew said the All Blacks would not play any midweek games this year because they wanted to take a World Cup-size squad of about 30 on the tour.

"The more we take, it also impacts on when they can go back in to Super rugby."

Tew said he thought it would be far too disruptive for the All Blacks to play in Asia on October 30 then return to New Zealand before heading off to Europe again.