Australia were furious England and Scotland sent weakened squads to the southern hemisphere in the middle of the year and threatened to snub the countries in future. The English and Scots both suffered humiliating defeats on the tours.
But the chairman of the sport's world governing body, the International Rugby Board (IRB), Vernon Pugh said: "If a host nation believes that a team selected is sub-standard they will have the ability to cancel tours.
"Hopefully this will help to concentrate minds," he told a news conference following a key meeting of the IRB in Dublin last week.
Leading Australian Rugby Union officials described the absence of England's leading players as insulting and called for sanctions from the IRB.
But the availability of players for national duty has been a controversial issue in Britain in the last year.
Earlier this year English clubs, worried that players were collecting injuries from playing too many games, were involved in a row with the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) about the availability of players for the tours.
Although the RFU and 12 leading clubs came to an agreement, the clubs have protested to the European Commission about IRB rules demanding that players always be released for international duty.
The IRB said the RFU faced a disciplinary hearing in December about its behaviour in what is becoming a complicated legal affair.
The English have been accused of not co-ordinating their response to the protest properly with the IRB. But IRB officials said it was not likely that the country would be banned from international competition for its action.
"We are in the business of resolving a problem, not throwing people out of international rugby, " IRB chief executive Stephen Baines said.
England could face a fine, however, from the IRB.
At the heart of the issue is the control of the international game. The English league game has become so multi-national that if clubs were given the right to decide on the release of players, it would affect many countries.
The IRB also announced plans for a new 15-year schedule of international tours in the new century.
The plans are aimed at getting the major nations playing more countries in a bid to expand the game internationally. Fiji, Samoa, Argentina and Canada have now been made part of fixed regular tour schedule of the leading nations.
Reuters
