KEY POINTS:
The IRB has responded to fears test rugby is dying by agreeing to clamp down on international sides deliberately selecting weakened squads.
To help the quest to boost international rugby, the IRB has also agreed to scrap in-bound tests in 2011 ahead of the World Cup and has committed to restructuring the season to eliminate player release issues.
The Herald on Sunday understands these agreements were reached on Thursday at an IRB meeting in Dublin and were rushed through amid fears a breakaway by European clubs would jeopardise the international game.
A spokesperson for the IRB said announcements would be made this week, but couldn't comment further.
Arguably, the agreement to restructure the season will be most warmly welcomed by the wider rugby fraternity.
For years rugby bosses have talked of the need to create an integrated season and the chaos in Europe where the English and French clubs have pulled out of the Heineken Cup is effectively a battle caused by the cluttered calendar, which creates club versus country dilemmas.
The IRB is expected to announce this week that, after presenting a range of options on the season structure, the unions have now committed to agreeing on one. The establishment of a single extended international window is understood to be the frontrunner.
Knowing that a deal will be struck on that front, the IRB member unions have been able to push on with other measures to protect and enhance the standing of international rugby.
The major unions are unanimous they must abide by the principle all tests are meaningful by selecting squads that confirm internationals are the pinnacle of the game.
It is possible regulations will be amended to support the conviction that international coaches should always work with their strongest squad for all games.
While that might become an area of contention in terms of determining what exactly is a country's strongest squad, the Herald on Sunday understands the intention will not be to impede nor dictate selections, but to stop the best players being rested en masse as currently happens.
In recent years it has become common practice for international sides in both hemispheres to 'rest' leading players for end-of-season tours.
In 2002 John Mitchell left a host of senior players behind when the All Blacks travelled to Europe and, most famously, England endured the 'Tour from Hell' in 1998 when they picked a seriously weakened squad and were hammered 76-0 by the Wallabies.
These diminished squads have devalued the currency of test football. The All Blacks failed to sell out all their home tests last year and TV viewing figures were down 30 per cent, leading NZRU boss Chris Moller to warn that games between World Cups couldn't be reduced to pseudo-friendly status.
The problem is most acute in World Cup years when teams try to protect their best players ahead of the tournament.
Under the current system the IRB schedules cross-hemisphere tests up to 10 years in advance, lumbering unions with games they don't want to play ahead of the World Cup.
Last week England, Ireland and Wales picked dramatically weakened squads to fulfil their forthcoming test obligations. France are expected to follow suit when they come to New Zealand for a two-test series in June.
By the middle of last week, only 28,000 tickets had been sold for the June 2 test against France in Auckland, 33,000 for the June 9 game in Wellington and 12,000 for the clash against Canada on June 16 in Hamilton.
With similar lukewarm interest for the forthcoming tests in Australia and South Africa, the IRB have agreed that countries will no longer be obligated to fulfil a pre-scheduled programme in World Cup years.
Both the Six Nations and Tri Nations competitions will take place in World Cup years and it is understood that individual nations will be free to structure their test programme to suit their needs.
It is hoped that once the season structure is amended that test football can be further supported by the creation of some form of new competition featuring the best 10 teams in the world.
If one test window is established plans have been mooted to build a competition that will be linked to World Cup ranking points to increase interest in cross-hemisphere clashes and to further encourage all nations to field strong squads.
