Secure Brumbies can finally move on

Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham says it's a welcome relief that his club's Super Rugby future has been secured, but he feels for the Western Force and Melbourne.

Stephen Larkham says the Brumbies will resume their search for his coaching successor now that the ARU has finally confirmed the franchise's Super Rugby survival.

While always quietly confident the Brumbies would be spared the chop, saying it would be "ridiculous" to cut the country's most successful provincial outfit, Larkham expressed relief that months of uncertainty was over.

"It's not only the playing group that get affected. It's the staff, it's the people who work in the organisation," Larkham said.

"It's the junior academy programs ... It's more far reaching than just the players."

ARU chairman Cameron Clyne said the Brumbies "met all the criteria; financial, governance, high performance outcomes, future sponsorships, a range of issues that indicated they would be a sustainable presence and therefore would not need to be considered for elimination at this point."

"It gives us an opportunity now to push forward with a number of decisions that we've been awaiting on; the (appointment of a head coach) being one and a number of player contracts as well," said Larkham, who will work fulltime with the Wallabies after the 2017 Super Rugby season.

But many other players and coaches aren't so fortunate, with ARU still to announce if it will be the Western Force or Melbourne Rebels who are cut as part of the competition's restructure to a 15-team format.

A stack of players remain unsigned for 2018 and ARU chief Bill Pulver says he can't guarantee everyone from the team axed a future in Australia.

"It's going to be dependant upon whether a Super Rugby club wants to pick them up or whether Australian rugby wants to retain their presence in our Super Rugby competition," Pulver said.

"The two teams that are under consideration both have different levels of players contracted through the end of 2017 and through to the end of 2018 and every single player contract will be honoured.

"So there'll an individual discussion with each player in relation to the high-performance requirements of the Super Rugby teams and the Australian Rugby Union to resolve that.

"Nobody will be forced to go anywhere they don't want to go."