Gareth Thomas will lead Wales for the first time against South Africa in Cardiff on November 6 despite protests from his club Toulouse, but the Welsh Rugby Union is calling for the European season to be restructured to end such disputes over the release of players for international duty.

"The European season is a dog's breakfast," said the WRU's chief executive David Moffett. "We have submitted a proposal to Deloittes [Deloitte and Touche, the accountancy firm hired by the International Rugby Board to report on the feasibility of a global season]. Our recommendation is that all the club competitions should be played to a finish between September and the beginning of April, after which the Six Nations Championship would take place.

"Both hemispheres rely on incoming tours financially and we believe matches should be held around the end of August on a home-and-away basis. The benefit of the scheme is that players would not be going back and forth between club and country all the time and they would all have a guaranteed rest period of 10 weeks in the summer."

The Scottish Rugby Union, which is £20m in debt, will hold talks with the 2007 World Cup hosts France this month about selling back the three pool matches due to be staged at Murrayfield.

Sione Kepu, a 24-year-old New Zealand Sevens wing who is Jonah Lomu's cousin, starts a three-month trial with Worcester tomorrow.