International Rugby
Wales to tour Australia in 2012
Scrum.com
May 21, 2010
Wales flanker Jonathan Thomas is upended by Quade Cooper, Wales v Australia, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, November 28, 2009
Wales and Australia will have plenty of time to get to know one another in 2012 © Getty Images
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The Australian Rugby Union have announced that Wales will tackle the Wallabies in a three-Test series in 2012.

ARU boss John O'Neill details of the plan following the publication of the International Rugby Board's 10-year playing schedule that will see a return to traditional tours. From 2012, northern hemisphere sides will embark on two or three Test tours each June and will also be encouraged to play midweek games.

Wales, who face South Africa and New Zealand next month, will head to Australia in the year after the Rugby World Cup with the British & Irish Lions and France following them in 2013 and 2014 respectively. Wales last toured Australia in 2007 when Gareth Jenkins' side lost both their games in the build-up to that year's World Cup.

"It's an enormous breakthrough for the southern hemisphere to get that sort of commitment to our June window," said O'Neill. "When you consider we also have a major expansion of Super Rugby next year and the prospect of Argentina joining the Wallabies, the All Blacks and Springboks in a Four-Nations championship from 2012, the future looks very exciting."

Wales' last victory over one of the Tri-Nations sides in the southern hemisphere was their 22-21 World Cup victory over Australia in Rotorua in 1987 while their 19-16 victory over Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground in 1969 remains the only time they have inflicted a defeat on one of the southern hemisphere giants on their home soil.

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