Fourth Super 12 side would boost Australian rugby, says Macqueen

SYDNEY - Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen believes Australia could improve by 25 per cent if the world champions were granted a fourth Super 12 team next year.

"It's early days as far as another team is concerned but I'm certainly a supporter of the concept," Macqueen said.

"It's essential for Australian rugby to go forward.

"If it happened, (the Wallabies) could improve by about 25 per cent because it gives us that many more players.

"It's as simple as that," Macqueen told Australian Associated Press.

Macqueen said that a fourth Australian team would need to be competitive from its first season.

The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) is making contingency plans for a team - based in Melbourne, Perth or western Sydney - to join Queensland, New South Wales and the ACT in the provincial competition which includes four teams from South Africa and five from New Zealand.

A decision from the South African New Zealand Australian rugby union alliance (SANZAR) is expected later this year, perhaps in July.

Macqueen, who will step down as Australia's coach later this year after the Tri-Nations and British and Irish Lions series, steered the Brumbies to the 1997 final, which they lost to the Auckland Blues.

Australian newspapers have speculated this week that Macqueen will be asked to take on a role with the fourth Super 12 team if it goes ahead, while former Wallaby prop Ewen McKenzie has also been put forward as a contender.

The Brumbies, third in the Super 12 standings with two rounds remaining and beaten finalists last year under coach Eddie Jones, are expected to lose Jones to the national job later this year, also leaving their coaching position vacant.

- REUTERS