Dylan Cleaver: This Super franchise will be lost on Melbourne's sporting public

This is a vote for common sense, said Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill after Melbourne got the green light to be the base for the 15th Super rugby franchise.

Strange choice of words, that.

Not "inspired", or "enlightened", or even "vaguely interesting" - just garden variety common sense.

Even by those low standards, O'Neill's comment is open to debate.

The all-New Zealand Sanzar panel of David Kirk and retired High Court judge Barry Paterson QC determined that the Port Elizabeth-based Southern Kings bid had a stronger business model and rugby tradition, a better playing base and was further advanced in terms of rugby readiness.

Melbourne, on the other hand, offered stronger commercial benefits - so the Melbourne Rebels got the gig.

Sounds more like dollars-and-cents than common sense.

Remember, too, that the hearts of Melburnians have been bought by one of the city's nine AFL teams.

Even league, a more Australian sport than union, has struggled, the Melbourne Storm having the third-lowest average crowd this year despite being the NRL's best side.

In 2007, an official Australian Bureau of Statistics report found a less than 1 per cent participation rate in rugby in Victoria. A hard sell, yes, but in Victorian Rugby Union president Gary Gray they have a salesman who will have vegetarians emptying their pockets for a ticket in a meat raffle.

Speaking to the Herald, Gray said he was convinced the Rebels would be embraced by the AFL-loving public.

"The public at large are very excited we are now going to be part of the international rugby scene," Gray said. "For a minor rugby state, we have a real tradition and culture of rugby here. We're [the VRU] 100 years old this year and Victoria's produced something like 26 Wallabies.

"We have a big city with a lot of expats.

"We have a lot of Kiwis and a lot of South Africans and I'm confident we will tap into those demographics. I think people will be surprised by the Victorian underbelly of rugby support."

Underbelly? Mark "Chopper" Read for tighthead prop?

Now there's a thought.