Australia's players union has urged rugby chiefs not to dismiss Japan as a serious candidate for inclusion in a 2011 Super 15.

While Melbourne are undeniable front-runners and Gold Coast have promised a huge fight to be the fifth team in the Australian conference of the expanded competition, the Rugby Union Players Association says Japan can't be ignored.

Australian Rugby Union supremo John O'Neill this week indicated governing body SANZAR believed Japan was a more likely prospect for a Super 16 or Super 20 in 2015, and wasn't ready now.

But RUPA boss Tony Dempsey said tournament organisers needed to be more conscious of the commercial benefits of opening the door to the Land of the Rising Sun.

"Our underlying philosophy is if we're going to expand, we have to expand to areas that are going to give the competition commercial return as well," Dempsey told AAP.

"We have to look beyond what looks altruistic and what looks attractive to the average rugby follower and be commercial about this as well because we are living in a very competitive sporting market.

"Japan is the second biggest economy in the world and they love their rugby up there.

"We don't want to dismiss them too early in the process, they should be considered."

Also making the move attractive to Australian players, Dempsey admitted, would be the need by a Japanese team to be bolstered by foreign players to be competitive.

With the depth in playing stocks also in question, Australia is no certainty of housing the fifth team and South Africa stubbornly want a side from the Eastern Cape to be admitted.

O'Neill signalled the start of a bidding war when he asked for immediate expressions of interest and "competitive tension" for the 15th licence after a SANZAR board meeting in Dubai on Thursday.

He talked up Melbourne, Gold Coast, western Sydney, Gosford and Newcastle as all having cases for inclusion in a Melbourne Cup-like field but admitted only "one or two" were genuine contenders.

Rugby Gold Coast chief executive Tim Rowlands conceded the Victorian Rugby Union, which narrowly lost out to Perth in 2004 when the competition expanded to the Super 14, were clear favourites.

Rowlands admitted time was already running out for the Coast, who would play out of Skilled Park, with the decision to be made on the successful bid team before the end of 2009.

"Melbourne have done all their groundwork, all their infrastructure is in place and we're only starting from scratch," he said.

"But if you ask the players where they would rather play, I'm sure they would definitely say Gold Coast over Melbourne."

Rugby Gold Coast, which reaches down to Northern NSW, welcomed O'Neill's plans of a "hybrid team" including a host of Pacific Islanders, rising and expat Australians and the "odd league player" to ensure the existing four teams wouldn't be undermined.

"There's a very strong Polynesian population on the coast," Rowlands said.

While O'Neill wouldn't exclude a player draft to spread the talent evenly through Australian sides, Dempsey said the new team could achieve competitiveness through other means.

He believed salary concessions and extra ARU assistance, plus an increase in foreign player signings from two to "several more" would do much to aid a fledgling team.

Former Samoa and Pacific Islands Alliance Test coach John Boe said a simple and just solution should see the winner of the annual Pacific Tri-Nations - between Fiji, Samoa and Tonga - qualify for the next year's Super 15.

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