England were due to play Fiji for the first time since 1999

England have cancelled their November international against Fiji and replaced it with a Test against Australia.

The move is an attempt to strengthen the financial position of Fijian rugby, which recently lost a major sponsor and recorded a loss of £230,000.

A game against Australia will generate a £7m surplus, a significant portion of which will go to the Fijians.

That will mean they can continue with their autumn Tests against Scotland (14 November) and Ireland (21 November).

England's meeting with the Wallabies on 7 November will be followed by matches against Argentina and New Zealand.

Australia will follow their match at Twickenham with games against Ireland, Scotland and Wales, ensuring their take part in their first Grand Slam rugby tour in 25 years.

As for Fiji, they will now face the United States on 28 November instead of playing England.

"Moving around our autumn schedule is not ideal but to be able to offer Fiji substantive support we needed to find a multi-union approach," said Rugby Football Union chief executive Francis Baron.

606: DEBATE Your thoughts on the fixture change-around

Keni Dakuidreketi, chairman of the Fiji Rugby Union, added: "These changes will have a positive effect in improving the present difficult financial position of Fiji Rugby."

The schedule alteration was approved by the International Rugby Board as part of a global package of measures designed to support Fijian rugby.

The change means Martin Johnson's England will open their autumn campaign a week earlier than planned and the Premiership clubs have agreed to move the official international window, which guarantees player release for Test matches, from 14-28 November to 7-21 November.

The RFU confirmed that plans to stage a fourth autumn international, with revenue to be shared between the RFU and Premiership clubs, were now off the table.

Premier Rugby decided they would prefer to stick by the current arrangement of three autumn internationals for 2009.

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