The British and Irish Lions have warned Australia that they must release their Test players for the visitors' tour games against Super Rugby sides.
The Lions take on Western Force on Saturday with Wallabies' head coach Joe Schmidt allowing Australia players Nick Champion de Crespigny, Dylan Pietsch, Tom Robertson, Darcy Swain and Nic White to turn out for the Perth-based outfit.
However other Aussie players from the Reds, Waratahs and Brumbies, including big names such as Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Rob Valetini won't be involved in the warm-up fixtures.
"The agreement is very clear -- it says that Test players have to be released to play in fixtures leading into that series. That is our expectation," Lions chief executive, Ben Calveley said speaking at a First Nations cultural experience in Perth's Kings Park.
"We'll play the game at the weekend and will carry on having discussions with Phil Waugh [Rugby Australia chief executive] and will take it step by step.
"It's really important that these games are competitive. It's not just from a performance standpoint but it's also right for the fans, partners and broadcasters, who are all expecting competitive fixtures, that would be their expectation as well," he added.
However, Schmidt indicated earlier this year that around 25 players from the Wallabies' squad -- the coach named a 38-man group last week -- would likely be ring-fenced from the tour games, while Australia also have a Test against Fiji of their own in Newcastle on Sunday week, the day after the Lions face the Waratahs in Sydney.
That means no frontline Wallabies will be available to play for NSW, while the fact the Reds game is three days prior on Wednesday also means Queensland players in the Australia squad are also highly unlikely to feature in the Lions' third tour game.
But it does not mean that players returning from injury, such as Matt Faessler [Reds] and Max Jorgensen [Waratahs] might instead be sent back to their provinces for game time, rather than thrown in cold against the Fijians.
"One of the options with Matt is that he only spends a week with us, just so that we check him out and see how he's going and then he may go back and play that game for the Reds," Schmidt said of Faessler in Sydney last week.
The Lions sold out Aviva Stadium on Friday night, losing 28-24 to Argentina in a performance that Lions' flanker Tom Curry said will lead to some "tough conversations."
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