Rogers given Wallaby deadline

Wallaby back Mat Rogers will have until Thursday next week to prove his fitness for the team's year-end tour of Europe. Rogers has spent almost seven months in rehabilitation after injuring his ankle in the Super 12 match against the Cats on March 24.

Mat Rogers has a week to prove himself

While Rogers has recovered from the ankle injury, he has been unable to train with the Wallaby squad at their camp in Coffs Harbour this week after sustaining a groin strain while with his club side Southern Districts.

Wallaby coach Eddie Jones was not about to take any chances with the NSW Waratahs star, with the first Tests against Scotland less than a month away, on November 6.

"Certainly he's got to start training," the Wallaby coach told The Australian newspaper.

"This is a setback to his chance of playing in the first Test, but he has a fitness test next Thursday. Hopefully he'll be fit by then and he'll have a good chance to press his claims for a spot."

If he is fit Rogers is likely to start at fullback in the Test at Murrayfield, after Chris Latham failed to impress in the Tri-Nations series, particularly during the Wallabies loss to South Africa in Durban in the final game of the tournament.

But chances are Scotland will be unable to field their strongest team, after a 'club versus country' row developed earlier this week.

The English Premiership clubs indicated that they would not be releasing their Scottish players for the Test against the Wallabies, because it falls outside a designated international weekend.

Jones expressed disappointment over the situation and hoped that sanity would prevail in the end, calling on the IRB to put some pressure on the clubs to release the players.

"I think they should," he said. "I think the argument is that it's outside the schedule of matches so maybe they (the IRB) don't have the legislation to enforce the regulations on availability.

"But having said that, you would hope the clubs would, in the best interests of the sport, release their players."