Last week the NRL released a proposal of international fixtures for the next four years.

Under that proposal a Great Britain tour to Australia in 2019 was scrapped, as was next year's Denver Test between England and New Zealand in the United States.

The NRL has also proposed a Four Nations tournament in the northern hemsiphere in 2020 involving England, France, Papua New Guinea and Fiji - but crucially not the Kangaroos or Kiwis.

Sinfield, who is the Rugby Football League's (RFL) rugby director and an ex-national team skipper, admitted the NRL's global plan raised several eyebrows.

"I sit here with a bit of disappointment understanding what the international calendar was going to be for the next four years," he said.

"And suddenly it looks like maybe there is going to be some doubt about that now. But we’ll see. I know that the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) meeting in the next couple of weeks will decide a couple of things.

"The thing for me is we need meangingful fixtures as a nation over this next three and a half years leading into the next World Cup and that’s men, women and wheelchair. Plus the England Knights need some meangingful fixtures.

"The fixtures they have are really important. 2020 is a big year and it will the be year we get to play for the Ashes again and I’ll be really disappointed if that’s changed. I mean meangingful in the most respectful way but we need to be playing against the best teams in the world.

"We need to be playing against Australia and New Zealand regularly – and Tonga. And that is really important for our program going forward. That [previous] plan we were given some time ago, we’ve been working off that and if it changes, it’s disappointing."