International Rugby Board chief Vernon Pugh told a Sunday newspaper a date had been fixed for 30 November with the venue "almost certainly the Millennium Stadium."

Pugh's plan would see all of the major rugby-playing nations releasing up to six of their players for a gala occasion designed to raise funds for emerging nations.

Former Wallabies coach Rod Macqueen and England manager Clive Woodward were reported to be ready to coach the two sides.

But Macqueen says he hasn't been contacted about the possibility, while both the Australian and New Zealand Rugby Unions have reacted coolly to the news.

"Last year SANZAR collectively rejected the idea of a northern hemisphere-southern hemisphere match," said an ARU spokesman.

"Our position is yet to be settled, we're still awaiting details."

The NZRFU are similarly unimpressed by suggestions that the match is now set in stone.

"We basically said that we're not going to be party to that," an NZRFU spokesman said.

"Our attitude hasn't really changed. We're not saying anything about it at this stage."

"The commercial side looks good and we're still waiting for best offers on TV," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

"I'm hopeful that with a full gate we'll raise up to �4million. We've promised the money to the Island teams (Tonga, Samoa and Fiji) and Romania."

The proposed match would be the centrepiece of a weekend of rugby.

The IRB have booked Cardiff Castle for a banquet the following night, where they will hold their official end of year awards.

"We want the players to look upon it as an honour to be selected for the game," Pugh said.

"It's a rugby weekend where the bigger unions will be making a tangible effort to help other countries who have hit hard times."

Severe reservations

But problems must be solved before the match can go ahead.

The English Rugby Football Union have doubts about the game's commercial viability, and rejected the chance to host the match.

"We like the principle of a match to generate more revenue to help the developing world," RFU chief Francis Baron, told the same newspaper.

"However, we have severe reservations about the commercial practicality of a north-south match.

"We were asked whether we would like to hold the match at Twickenham but declined because we don't think we would be able to sell the capacity.

"There are also problems with player release. Under our agreement with the clubs we would not be able to require them to release players to play in the game."