Australia will complete their European tour next season with an historic match at Wembley Stadium against the Barbarians and are also hinting heavily at a grand-slam tour of Britain and Ireland in 2009.

Just to add to the mix, they are insistent that the experimental law variations (ELV) under trial in the Super 14 tournament should be embraced worldwide on September 1.

The match at Wembley on December 3 stems from the invitation of the British Olympic Association to mark the centenary of Australia's gold-medal win in the 1908 Olympic Games in London.

John O'Neill, the Australian Rugby Union's chief executive officer and managing director, also seeks to add England to his country's 2009 tour programme, which already includes fixtures against Scotland, Ireland and Wales. The Wallabies have not made a grand-slam tour since 1984, but under a new agreement with the Guinness Premiership clubs, England will stage four autumn internationals on alternate years and have four games scheduled for November.

“If the International Rugby Board is truly the governing body of world rugby, they should just mandate it [September 1] as the day from which every competition should use the experimental laws,” O'Neill said, disregarding that his views on the value of the ELV are not universally shared. The IRB is due to meet northern-hemisphere coaches and referees this month to debate the new laws' value.

Gonzalo Tiesi, the Argentina centre, will move from London Irish to Harlequins next season to fill the gap left by the retirement of Stuart Abbott and the departure to Worcester Warriors in the summer of Hal Luscombe. Shaun Perry, the England scrum half, has agreed a three-year extension to his contract with Bristol.