ARU favours Victoria in Super 15

AAP - Wednesday, September 30, 2009 1:08 PM

A BIDDING race that began with seven Australian consortiums striving for a Super 15 licence will end with the Australian Rugby Union taking over the fight against South Africa's Southern Kings

The ARU will submit its application for Melbourne to be admitted to the expanded competition from 2011 today.

The controversial bid process got messier this week when the one-time preferred syndicate, VicSuper15, withdrew its interest in the licence on Wednesday.

VicSuper15 believed it had already gained ARU approval a fortnight ago, when it, along with the Victorian Rugby Union, presented to the ARU board in Sydney.

In a statement, VicSuper15 cited an inability to work together with the VRU and a conflict of interest in the bid process for the consortium's withdrawal.

''The ARU will now construct and may have to fund an ownership model for the new entity and the structure will be separate from the VRU to enable it to focus on its core responsibilities of managing and growing community rugby,'' the statement read.

The governing body appears to have taken over the bid but an ARU spokesman dismissed a report the franchise would be headed by senior officials Matt Carroll and David Nucifora, as chief executive and coach respectively.

Neither VRU nor VicSuper15 officials were prepared to comment yesterday but held hope they could be involved with the proposed team.

Both the ARU and South African Rugby Union will present their bids to SANZAR on October 21.