Former Great Britain coach Phil Larder has called for England's mid-season match with France to be scrapped and replaced by a fixture against a side made up of Super League-based Australians.

Larder believes that would provide England with better preparation for their end of season matches with Australia and New Zealand, the leaders in international rugby league.

In an interview with the April edition of Rugby League World magazine, Larder, national coach at the 1995 Rugby League World Cup and defence coach to the England rugby union side that won the 2003 World Cup, said England needed more top quality matches.

"Mid-season internationals against France and Wales are not the kind of games that will make our young stars battle-hardened," Larder said.

"They need to be subjected to the pressures that only playing regularly against the best will give."

Australia-born Tony Smith, who stepped down as England coach after November's Four Nations final defeat by the Kangaroos, also put forward the idea of creating an England-based team of southern hemisphere stars after his side enjoyed a second straight lopsided win over France in June.

Larder believes such a match would create an intensity similar to the one Australia enjoy with their State of Origin series and he said Huddersfield coach Nathan Brown should coach the selected side.

"A young and talented Australian coach, like Nathan Brown, given control of a team of his own countrymen would be surely motivated to create the kind of intensity that we see annually in the State of Origin," said Larder.

"There are some exceptional Australians playing in Super League and the ones I have spoken to would love to be involved in these clashes and promise to hold nothing back as long as the games were promoted properly."

Former Great Britain manager Colin Hutton added: "I fully agree with Phil's comments and I expressed that view after the ridiculous game against Wales on the eve of the 2008 World Cup, where the players' deficiencies in the heat of battle were exposed.

"Australia have their State of Origin series and the Trans-Tasman Test and I am sure, if it was properly promoted, it would create a lot of interest.

"It depends on how much importance we place on the international team. We are so parochial.

"It's been done before. We had the Other Nationalities playing Great Britain in the Fifties and I am sure people would warm to it. The quality is there.

"There is no reason why the Australian team couldn't also play France."

The Rugby Football League, who have yet to appoint Smith's successor, are due to announce details of the 2010 England-France match later this week.

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