A South African consortium has taken the number of bidders for a place in the expanded Super 15 rugby competition to ten.

Seven groups from Australia, two from New Zealand and one from South Africa have expressed interest in joining the southern hemisphere competition, which will be expanded from 14 to 15 teams in 2011.

The 15th team will play in the Australian conference of a new-style competition which will have three five-team conferences based in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

The 15th team is widely expected to be given to an Australia-based franchise.

The South African bid, the last to be received, comes from the Southern Kings - a group representing Eastern Province, Border and South Western Districts. The Kings were the only consortium to respond to calls from the South African Rugby Union for bids from a sixth South African franchise.

"SA Rugby has accepted the Kings' submission and has formally asked SANZAR to consider the franchise for inclusion in the full-blown tender process," the union said on Thursday.

The New Zealand Rugby Union received expressions of interest from its Hawke's Bay and Taranaki provinces, both part of the Wellington Hurricanes Super 14 franchise.

SANZAR, the consortium which runs the Super 14 and Tri-Nations competitions, will examine the expressions of interest and decide in August which of the 10 bidders will be invited to join the full tender process.

Those bidders will make formal application for the Super 15 vacancy and SANZAR will weigh those bids and factors such as financial sustainability, player strength, geographical location and time zones.

It expects to name the new team by October 31.

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