Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has warned Digby Ioane and Hugh McMeniman they would forever rue trading in a Test jersey for overseas riches.

Deans on Wednesday said the off-contract Queensland Reds stars would struggle to live with the regret of giving up their burgeoning Wallabies careers if they took up the big money overseas.

Lock-flanker McMeniman, 25, and outside back Ioane, 23, are the two in-form players Australian rugby is struggling to keep through to the 2011 World Cup as they eye more lucrative foreign deals.

Deans strongly cautioned they may never get another chance to play in the international arena and held world-class flanker George Smith up as a prime example of a player wholly rewarded for his desire to represent his nation.

"They're just getting started so I think they would rue the day they left if they did leave," he said. "There is so much in front of them right now in terms of opportunity and you only get one crack.

"I wouldn't want them to be in the position of looking back and regretting a short-term decision or that was motivated by short-term gain or pecuniary gain that doesn't have a lot of meaning."

Both players could take up two-year deals in Japan or Europe and then return to Australian rugby after the World Cup but Deans played down any guarantees they would again command a Test place.

"Obviously others will fill that space and tend to seize that opportunity," he said. "These blokes are in their prime and they're just getting started and that opportunity won't be there forever.

"It is difficult for young blokes, when they're getting offered incentives, to balance their decision.

"It stared with a free pair of boots at club level.

"But when your career's over and it's all said and done George Smith is living proof of the meaning of what you do, he could have gone anywhere for more."

Deans said Ioane would be one of the first names locked in for the Wallabies opening match of 2009 against the Barbarians in Sydney on June 6 if he was cleared of serious shoulder damage after having scans on Wednesday.

The tackle-shedding three-quarter has been the most effective Australian attacker in the Super 14, leading the tackle-bust statistics, to be a likely wing partner to Lote Tuqiri and add to his four Test caps.

McMeniman, capped 21 times, was on track to be picked either in the second-row or No.6 before having an ankle operation which is set to sideline him until the European spring tour.

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