New Zealand great at centre of telling $360 million move to see second Kiwi team join the NRL

The New Zealand-based Southern Orcas have invoked Paul Hogan's character Crocodile Dundee in pitching a revised $360 million bid to the NRL for inclusion in an expanded competition. Headed by former Kiwi coach Sir Graham Lowe, the Southern Orcas consortium flew into Sydney on Thursday to re-sell their vision of a team operating out of Christchurch, possibly as early as 2027.

The NRL last month officially rejected three New Zealand bids due to a lack of detail and substance. The Orcas went away, licked their wounds, and have returned with a beefed-up proposal they believe puts them well ahead of their rivals.

Orcas managing director Andrew Chalmers revealed the club already had a coach - currently operating in the NRL - lined-up to join the franchise and outlined plans to play in the newly-enclosed Christchurch Stadium with a centre of excellence to be built nearby. He also said several wealthy and well-connected New Zealand businessmen, who wish to remain anonymous, were willing to invest.

Southern Orcas hope to join Warriors as NZ's second NRL team

Sides from PNG and Perth will be admitted to the NRL first but the Orcas hope to be the 20th team invited in. In re-launching their campaign for inclusion and acknowledging their previous bid was below par, consortium chiefs declared: "Paul Hogan said that's not a knife – this is a knife. Well, that's not a bid - this is a bid."

Lowe believes the inclusion of a team from the South Island – setting up instant competition with the North Island-based Warriors – would give rugby league in New Zealand a game to match the NSW-Queensland rivalry. He told Yahoo Sport Australia: "I see it as a great opportunity to help the NRL with a different type of State of Origin.

"We see an opportunity for a rivalry that will match that intensity we see here in State of Origin." Asked if he believed it would be a lost opportunity for the game if the Orcas were knocked back a second time, Lowe said: "It'd be a crying shame but we're not allowing that to come into our thinking.

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"We just hope we get the opportunity with the NRL to go through this. We've tried to understand what the NRL wants and we've tried to meet all their expectations in every way we can.

"If Peter V'Landys walked in here and said 'we need you to start straight away', we're ready to start straight away. We want to add to the NRL."