ACT Brumbies winger Henry Speight's Test dreams have been dealt a blow with the International Rugby Board ruling him ineligible to play for the Wallabies until September 11.
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A three-man IRB panel decided Fijian-born Speight's international fate on Friday night, declaring he will qualify to play for Australia at the end of the year.
Speight and the Brumbies had been hoping for an immediate clearance given Speight has been based in Canberra since the end of 2010.
IRB eligibility rules state players must spend three consecutive years in Australia before playing for the Wallabies.
Speight - Australia's highest-scoring winger of the past two Super Rugby seasons - left Australia in September, 2011 for a brief three-month playing stint in New Zealand.
He returned to Canberra for the 2012 campaign but the trip across the Tasman has postponed his international career.
Speight has spent the past year in international limbo and it was feared he might be ineligible until the end of November.
Speight's ban will end halfway through the Rugby Championship.
He will miss six Tests this year - three against France, two against New Zealand and one against South Africa. But Speight will be eligible to play in the remaining four Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup matches as well as the end-of-year tour of Europe, if Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie picks him.
