Wallaby Spring Tour finalised
The Australian Wallabies will return to a traditional Spring Tour in November when they play three midweek
tour matches, four Test matches and finish with a match against the Barbarians.
The Tests against Wales, Italy, Ireland and Scotland have now been complemented with midweek matches
against Ireland A, Scotland A and Welsh Heineken Cup team Ospreys.
The tour will finish with a flourish at Twickenham on November 29 when the Wallabies take on the Barbarians
for the first time since 2001. That year was also the last time the Wallabies conducted an extended tour,
playing England National Division XV and Oxford University along with Tests against Spain, England, France and
Wales.
Wallabies coach John Connolly said the return to a traditional tour schedule will provide the broader
Wallabies squad with more opportunities to play high-quality matches in the lead up to the World Cup in France
next year.
“This will be an extremely important Tour. It’s the busiest we’ve had in a number of years in terms of
matches and it will give all players on the Tour an opportunity to see significant playing time,” said
Connolly.
Connolly maintained that winning Test matches was the primary focus for the Tour.
“We will be selecting the strongest possible squad for the Tour with the aim of winning every Test,”
he said.
“We have one eye on the World Cup next year and will continue to strengthen our player base, but our main
focus is on winning Test matches.”
Connolly stressed that positions in the Spring Tour squad were still firmly up for grabs with the squad to
be announced following next month’s APC (Australian Provincial Championship) Tournament between the four
Australian Super 14 provinces.
“The squad is by no means selected and we will be looking closely at the performance of a number of players
during the APC,” said Connolly.
“We will finalise a squad of between 36 and 38 players at the completion of the APC,” he said.
2006 Wallaby Spring Tour Key Dates
Wallabies Spring Tour squad announcement – TBC (likely first week of October)
Tuesday 24 October - Spring Tour squad assembles in Sydney for 3 day camp
Friday 27 October - Spring Tour squad departs for London
Thursday 30 November - Wallabies return to Australia
Wallabies Spring Tour 2006 |
| Date | Match | Venue | City | Time |
| Wed Nov 1 | Ospreys | vs | Australia A | Liberty Stadium | Swansea | 7:30pm |
| Sat Nov 4 | Wales | vs | Australia | Millennium Stadium | Cardiff | 2:30pm |
| Sat Nov 11 | Italy | vs | Australia | Stadio Flaminio | Rome | 3:00pm |
| Wed Nov 15 | Ireland A | vs | Australia A | Thomond Park | Limerick | TBC |
| Sun Nov 19 | Ireland | vs | Australia | Lansdowne Road | Dublin | 4:00pm |
| Tue Nov 21 | Scotland A | vs | Australia A | TBC | TBC | TBC |
| Sat Nov 25 | Scotland | vs | Australia | Murrayfield Stadium | Edinburgh | 2:30pm |
Note: *All times are listed in local time.
| 
