SHATTERED Rugby League bosses will today sift through the ashes of a cancelled Kangaroo tour and attempt to resurrect an end-of-season Test series.

The sudden collapse of the first Ashes tour for seven years caught RFL officials unaware as they were besieged by a media frenzy on a black day for the game.

RFL director of rugby Greg McCallum, in urging his ARL counterparts to think again, has suggested ditching the club games and playing only the Test matches, but their decision appears irrevocable.

And today efforts will be stepped up to put in place a revised international programme, both to salvage a perilous financial position at Red Hall and to provide a fitting finale to the year-long preparations of the Great Britain side.

Offers have already gone out to potential alternative tourists, with two of the other major nations, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, thought to have been approached. Britain are already playing the fifth nation, France, later this month.

Updated: 12:08 Thursday, October 11, 2001