Canadian strike threat puts Wallabies' visit in doubt

The last time the Wallabies played a Test match against a side riddled with personnel problems, they beat England 76-zip in Brisbane. Now, as world champions and recent conquerors of the Lions, they reserve the right to cancel fixtures against backwater nations shorn of their leading players; indeed, Australian Rugby Union officials will consider taking that very step today when they discuss the turmoil affecting the top end of the game in Canada.

Australia are scheduled to appear in Vancouver on 27 October in the first outing of a five-Test tour of North America and Europe. Unfortunately for the oval-ball aficionados of British Columbia, 60 front-line "Canucks" are threatening strike action over the abrupt dismissal of their national coach, Dave Clark, who went professionally off-piste in an effort to raise sponsorship money for his charges without getting clearance from the ruling classes at Rugby Canada.

Unless Canada can guarantee to put a representative side on the field, the Wallabies will forget all about Vancouver and head straight for Spain, where they will act as rugby missionaries before taking on England, France and Wales during November. As things stand, the prospects are grim. The players have formed their own trade union in response to Clark's departure – a move the acting chief executive of Rugby Canada, Graham Baldwin, has called "sinister and immoral". An early solution appears unlikely.

England's autumn internationals against Australia, Romania and South Africa will be controlled by southern hemisphere officials: Paddy O'Brien of New Zealand, Pablo Deluca of Argentina and Stuart Dickinson of Australia, in that order. The way things are going, Martin Johnson, the red rose captain, will never be refereed by a European at Test level again. The Lions Tests in Australia were run by South Africans and New Zealanders, and the leading English players are now so used to southern interpretations that they could play Super 12 rugby in their sleep.

Only one of England's three professional referees, Steve Lander, has been awarded a match – the Wales-Australia contest in Cardiff.