Geoff Stooke, then chairman of Rugby Western Australia, fired off a colourful email to then-ARU chairman Peter McGrath, which has been reproduced in a book by former players' association chief Tony Dempsey.

"The development and playing opportunities that the ARC provided helped retain players in Australia and assisted Super teams develop emerging talent," Stooke wrote.

"This is now lost. I guess with some of the money saved consideration can be given to buying more mungoes! Sorry if I sound a bit 'pissed off' but it's probably because I am."

Stooke is now a director on the ARU board which, on Friday afternoon, debated whether to have another crack at a third-tier competition in Australia.

Almost seven years after the ARC was sunk, the NRC could rise in its place. An announcement on the competition is expected next week.

"We are quite excited about the prospect of the National Rugby Championship," Sydney University Football Club president David Mortimer said on Friday.

"By participating in the competition, we think it's the best thing for our guys going forward, but it is dependent on the success of the competition and the extent to which it is promoted and marketed by the ARU."

Mortimer's comments are significant in more ways than one. Sydney University were part of a so-called "coalition of the unwilling", along with Randwick and Eastern Suburbs, whose vocal opposition to the ARC threatened to derail the competition before its inception and helped keep it on a treacherous footing throughout 2007.

And while Mortimer and Randwick figurehead Simon Poidevin would have preferred the NRC kick off in 2015, both have sniffed the breeze and ploughed everything into staking a claim in the new competition.

Sydney University is staging a joint venture with Balmain rugby club and Randwick has decided to go it alone, with assistance from the University of NSW. Eastern Suburbs, meanwhile, has reportedly teamed up with the NSW Country consortium.

In this way, the NRC is already streets ahead of its forerunner the ARC.

Where the Brisbane and Sydney Premier Rugby clubs were left out in the cold in 2007, forced to watch as the players they bred were farmed out to state-based teams, this time around clubs were encouraged to form alliances with each other and partner with universities, which have the scale and resources to offer much-needed institutional and financial support.

In another way – perhaps the most important – the NRC has also learnt from its doomed predecessor.

Never intended to make a profit, let alone break even, in its first year, the ARC's losses ran to $5 million. Coupled with the vociferous criticism from the big three Sydney Premier Rugby clubs, the financial challenges of the 2007 competition made it easy for newly reinstated ARU chief executive John O'Neill to kill it just a few months into his reign.

Bill Pulver, O'Neill's successor, has made sure the NRC will not be the same drain on ARU finances.

Pay television broadcaster Fox Sports has stumped up $1.5 million for the broadcasting rights and respected sports administrator John Boultbee, brought in four months ago to plan and launch the competition, has consistently maintained the NRC will wash its own face financially from the start.

But someone has to shoulder the risk for this ambitious new venture, and while the ARU has its bases responsibly covered, it appears the most vulnerable in Australian rugby have the most to lose this time around.

"We are looking at this as a two-year exercise, but it is a major investment for all of our syndicates ... It is very important that it is successful, otherwise the money is burnt forever," Mortimer said.

The hopeful tenderers are coy about what constitutes a "major investment", but it is understood most syndicates have raised between $350,000 and $500,000 for their team's first season.

Not huge money in the scheme of the professional game – several Wallabies earn more than that for a season – but for Premier Rugby clubs that will still have colts and grade teams to run in the Brisbane and Sydney competitions on top of their involvement in the NRC, this is life and death.

In assessing the bids, the ARU has asked for a guarantee the tenderers will be able to see out the initial two years.

"This is not a money-making exercise, make no mistake," Mortimer said. "But it is extremely important the ARU markets the competition well and works very hard to increase its exposure. One game a week [required by the terms of the ARU's broadcasting deal with Fox Sports] is not how you build momentum."

Stooke has probably reconciled himself with the influence of "mungoes" in rugby – the NRL would happily take Israel Folau off the ARU's hands if he has not – and he will no doubt be pleased to have a crucial plank in Australia's player development pathway in place again soon.

But if the NRC goes the same way as the ARC, Premier Rugby clubs will not just be "pissed off", they'll be fighting for survival.