The spiteful public spat between the ARU, Wallabies coach John Connolly and the four franchises came to a head at the weekend with threats that the Waratahs and Reds would ignore an ARU directive over the use of frontline Wallabies in the pre-season matches and throughout the tournament.

But on Monday the ARU issued a statement in which it said that an agreement has been reached and all four franchises will now adhere to the RTA directive from the ARU.

"The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and the CEOs of the Super 14 provinces, ACT, Queensland, NSW and Western Australia, today [Monday] held a teleconference on Restricted Training Activity (RTA)," the statement said.

"The RTA revolves around the preparation of the 21 Wallabies in the lead up to and during the Super 14 tournament, whose rugby year will culminate in the 2007 World Cup in France in September and October of this year.

"The conference call confirmed that those 21 players nominated by the ARU will be available to play 40 minutes of each of the Australian Provinces’ last Super 14 trial, set down for the Australia Day weekend.

"It was also agreed that during the Super 14 tournament, the ARU and State Union coaching staff will continue to liaise in order to ensure the optimum preparation for both Super 14 and Rugby World Cup 2007."

The public slanging match between the national body and the franchise - which was highlighted by the showdown between Wallabies coach John Connolly and Reds counterpart Eddie Jones - is just the latest drama in a litany of incidents which has dragged Australian rugby into a mire that could derail the Wallabies' World Cup campaign.

At the weekend World Cup-winning coach Rod Macqueen said Jones and Connolly should bury the hatchet for the sake of Australian rugby.

"Looking from the outside, I would hope sanity prevails," Macqueen said. "It would be silly to say things are good, that's obviously not the case.

"It's got to be overcome and you would hope, in the best interests of the game, that people would start to talk."