The ARU will lobby for concessions to allow Melbourne to recruit as many as 10 foreign players for the city's entry into an expanded Super 15 rugby competition in 2011.

The concessions would help prevent Australia's four established franchises from being depleted like the Queensland Reds were following player raids by the Western Force before their inclusion in the 2006 tournament.

Ending months of uncertainty, independent arbitrators on Wednesday granted Melbourne the 15th licence ahead of South Africa's Southern Kings.

The decision came as a "big relief" to ARU chief John O'Neill and sparked great excitement in Australian rugby ranks.

"This is a vote for commonsense," O'Neill told reporters in Dublin, ahead of Australia's grand slam Test with Ireland on Sunday.

The Super 15 will comprise five teams from each of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand in a new-look conference-style format, with the competition running for 19 weeks virtually simultaneously to the NRL and AFL seasons.

Significantly, because of the new home-and-away system, there will be 20 all-Australian local derbies each season.

Wallabies coach Robbie Deans and captain Rocky Elsom both welcomed Melbourne's successful bid - which ultimately edged out the Eastern Cape hopefuls because "the difference in broadcasting revenue between having a team in Melbourne versus having a team in Port Elizabeth was between a $15 million and $20 million cost to SANZAR", according to O'Neill.

"It can't help but help Australian rugby. It's a fantastic outcome. The profile of the game will just escalate," Deans said.

"You've got rugby across the calendar year. You've got not only rugby, but local derbies, domestic rugby.

"Those two points alone are enormous. Easily said, but huge value.

"It's more top-end rugby and the reality is that players tend to be as good as the competitions they come out of and we've now got a top-end competition that will run from the start of the year to the finish.

"You can't better that to put us on a level pegging."

Elsom said: "It's a big win for all parties. It's really important to have another team and I can't see too many down points of having a team in Melbourne."

Australia wasn't represented in this year's Super 14 finals, but O'Neill and ARU high-performance unit manager David Nucifora are confident the world's third-ranked rugby nation has the necessary player resources for a fifth franchise, in addition to the NSW Waratahs, ACT Brumbies, the Reds and the Force.

"There's about 100 Australian players playing offshore in the northern hemisphere at the moment, so that's quite a few," Nucifora said.

O'Neill said the proposed concessions - which the ARU board has yet to approve - centre on granting Melbourne an increase in the number of foreign players on their books.

Franchises are currently allowed a maximum of two overseas imports, but O'Neill is proposing that Melbourne's anticipated 30-man squad be permitted "say up to 10 (foreigners) initially with that being phased out over an agreed period".

"It would only be a concession for Melbourne and only in the start-up phase," he said.

"The idea is to populate this franchise with Australian players and to give the national team, the national coach and selectors a much bigger talent pool from which to choose the Wallabies.

"We could give preference to some Argentinean players - because we are keen to get Argentina into the Four Nations sooner rather than later - and Pacific Island players.

"So what we're trying to do is set in place a policy framework that will lessen the impact on the poaching of players from other franchises.

"The only note of reality that you've got to inject into that is that there are players coming off contract in 2010 and we will be looking to protect the existing franchises as much as we can.

"But, equally, players who are coming off contract will be entitled to look around."

O'Neill anticipates Melbourne will be fully functional, with a chief executive and coach in place, by March next year.

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