The Heineken Cup holders Leicester hope to take on the Super-12 winners Canterbury Crusaders in November in the game's first showdown between the club champions of the two hemispheres.

Leicester and Northampton have tried before to organise a fixture with the Super-12 champions only to fail because no date could be agreed. New Zealand are touring Europe in November and the 30th has been pencilled in as a possible date, although that is the day when the International Rugby Board intends to stage a north-south international at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

"Everyone involved wants to make it happen," said the Leicester managing director David Clayton. "It is just a question of agreeing a date and November 30 looks a better prospect at this stage than next February."

Officials from European Rugby Cup Ltd will meet their Super-12 counterparts later this month to try to sort out a mutually acceptable date.

The Pontypridd fly-half Neil Jenkins will miss the start of the new season after breaking a bone in his foot. "I should be back in five weeks," said the 86-cap Welsh international.

The New Zealand coach John Mitchell denied reports that the All Blacks captain Reuben Thorne was seriously injured. The flanker underwent a scan on his neck in a Durban hospital on Thursday but said he would play in today's Tri-Nations game in Durban against the Springboks.

Ben Tune, prescribed a banned drug before the issue was kept secret by Australian officials, will appear before an independent tribunal on Monday. Tune had been due to leave for South Africa with the Wallabies tomorrow but will now remain in Sydney. The Wallaby prop Patricio Noriega will miss next week's game because of an ear complaint. Nick Stiles has replaced him in Australia's 26-man squad.

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