The new Melbourne team in the Super 15 rugby competition will be allowed to have 10 overseas players in its lineup to ensure it will be competitive when it begins play in 2011.
The Australian Rugby Union announced that it had eased the existing Foreign Player Policy - on a Melbourne-only basis - so the fifth Australian team can recruit up to 10 international players in its initial 30-man roster.
"To ensure Melbourne assembles a competitive squad for its inaugural year ... and to provide a level of protection for the present Australian Super Rugby teams, the ARU board has decided to relax the Foreign Player Policy for the new team," the ARU said in a statement.
The ARU Foreign Player Policy allows a Super Rugby province to contract up to two overseas players: one marquee signing who has already qualified for another nation, and a development player who could qualify for Australian selection under the International Rugby Board's three-year residency regulation.
If a team does not sign a marquee player it can contract two development players.
The Melbourne side will be allowed to sign an additional eight overseas players.
The ARU said the special concession will gradually be rolled back so that by 2015 Melbourne will have the same number of overseas players as the other four Australian teams.
"It is important to ensure Melbourne can recruit a team that is competitive from day one," ARU managing director and chief executive John O'Neill said.
"The concessions we have put in place provide Melbourne with every opportunity for immediate success, while also ensuring there is ongoing sustainability moving forward."
Melbourne will join existing Australian teams Queensland, New South Wales, ACT and the Western Force in the expanded Super 15 next year.
They will join Canterbury, Wellington, Otago, Auckland and Waikato from New Zealand and the Bulls, Lions, Cheetahs, Sharks and Stormers from South Africa. The 15 teams playing in three five-team divisions.
