“Look,it’s really a 50/50 call,” McLennan said.

“We need to look at the money,the ratings and sit down with our broadcast partner and then we’ll make a decision. But if we go with only a domestic only competition ... we’ll be in a position where we can create more top-tier clubs and have more people playing the game,versus playing New Zealand who are obviously some of the world’s best players.”

By retaining players who move overseas,McLennan believes Australia would have the depth to fill up to 10 teams in a new domestic competition. That’s a view at odds with numerous figures who say Australia doesn’t even have enough depth for five.

“We’ve got five obviously professional clubs at the moment,you need another three to five on top of that,to sort of successfully launch it,so you know,it’s not that big an ask really” McLennan said.

“And I actually think the standard will be really good. And don’t forget when we play in New Zealand at a Test level,you really only need to get 15 guys on the paddock in any given time.

“So if we’ve got an expanded competition that’s performing well,we’re confident that with our high-performance structures that we’re putting in,we’ll be able to make it work.”

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