The Australian Rugby Union will next year resurrect the national club competition model thrown on the scrapheap after just one season last decade.
Seven years after the Australian Rugby Championship was canned by ARU boss John O'Neill for being too expensive to run, his successor, Bill Pulver, has dusted off the third-tier plans.
Pulver has revealed an eight to 10-team National Rugby Championship would involve teams from Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and possibly regional country areas.
Australia's answer to New Zealand's ITM Cup, it would run for two months from mid-August, after Super Rugby, and be played on a round robin basis before a two-week finals format.
The ARU board has already signed off on the project, and key broadcast negotiations - which would make it financially viable - are almost finalised.
