Australia first up for Scots on three-Test summer tour

Where Scotland used to be lined up as the main opposition for southern hemisphere nations in two-Test tours, the SRU agreed this year, under the direction of head coach Andy Robinson, to instead move to one-Test meetings with Australia, New Zealand and South Africa from next year and look instead to add trips to lower-ranked nations and provincial opposition.

The first tour of this kind means Scotland will be the first nation to face the Wallabies in Australia since the World Cup – Australia are in the UK on 3 December to play Wales – with the hosts then looking to a two or three-Test incoming tour to finalise their warm-up to a newly expanded SANZAR competition featuring Argentina.

Scotland will play Australia on Tuesday 5 June at the Newcastle International Sports Centre, now known by its sponsor name of the Ausgrid Stadium, the multi-purpose sports ground and home of the Newcastle Knights NRL team and Newcastle United Jets professional football side. The game will mark the 33,000-capacity stadium’s debut on the Test rugby circuit.

The last time the two countries met was at Murrayfield in November 2009, when Scotland claimed a 9-8 win – their first over the Wallabies in 27 years. The tour to Australia is also likely to include a match against a Super 15 franchise, which will be played on Saturday 9 June, and be followed by a Test in Fiji and another in Samoa, but the dates and venues for those matches have still to be confirmed.

Robinson said: “We’re really pleased to have this fixture as part of our tour in June which will also encompass Test matches against Fiji and Samoa. We’re very much looking forward to going to Newcastle and playing our part in the inaugural Test match at the stadium there.”

One of the area’s most famous players is Adam Ashley-Cooper, the Australia full-back, and, speaking in Newcastle yesterday, he welcomed the move by the Australian Rugby Union to take a Test match away from the traditional venues in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

He said: “It will be good to part of the first Wallabies team to play a Test in Newcastle. There is a strong level of support for the game in the Hunter region, and a great history of Wallabies to have come from there so I’m sure a big crowd will get behind us against Scotland.”

2012 SCHEDULE

Sat 4 Feb: Scotland v England (Murrayfield, 5pm)

Sun 12 Feb: Wales v Scotland (Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, 3pm)

Sun 26 Feb: Scotland v France (Murrayfield, 3pm)

Sat 10 March: Ireland v Scotland (Aviva Stadium Dublin, 5pm)

Sat 17 March: Italy v Scotland (Stadio Olimpico, Rome, 12.30pm UK time)

Tues 5 June: Australia v Scotland (Ausgrid Stadium, Newcastle, NSW, kick-off TBC)