Melbourne Rebels head coach Rod Macqueen is contemplating the road ahead, quite literally.

He's opted to drive the scenic route along the coast road from Sydney to his new job and home in the Victorian capital.

Saving the Rebels a few dollars so they can spend big on those expensive overseas imports, Rod?

"Nah, I'm moving all my stuff. I've got my fishing rods in the car with me. There's water down there somewhere," he says over the phone as he heads south, leaving behind Sydney's insouciant northern beaches for Melbourne's unique charms.

For Macqueen, an active and hugely successful businessman (he owns an advertising company), putting down roots in a culturally rich and corporately sophisticated new city is the easy part, laying the foundations for the Rebels to be viable in a town where rugby is still largely viewed as a game more organically suited to faraway places like Bloemfontein, Belfast and Brisbane is where it gets tricky.

Macqueen and his backers, chair of the Rebels' ownership consortium, Harold Mitchell and chief executive Brian Waldron know merely having a presence in the Victorian capital will not be enough. Collectively - and this is why they are amongst the best at what they do - they've talked about quickly establishing a winning ethos and developing a club "culture" that becomes an integral part of Melbourne's sporting landscape.

And now they're set to reveal a few big name signings to join England import Danny Cipriani who agreed last month to bring his extreme though erratic talent to Melbourne in 2011.

On Monday, the Australian Rugby Union lifts its gag on the Rebels talking about the players they've recruited from other Australian outfits. Macqueen says there will be "several signings" announced and he's confident of being able to lock in the "core" of the side before the end of the month.

The names to be revealed on Monday, possibly amongst them Wallaby great Sterling Mortlock, exhilarating Queensland half Richard Kingi, NSW winger Peter Betham, Japan-based Mark Gerrard, former league star Mark Gasnier and Reds flyer Peter Hynes will stimulate discussion as to whether the Rebels are on track, but make no mistake, ultimately it's Macqueen's vision that will determine whether the club meets its lofty goals.

After all, it was Macqueen's understanding of the game and the innovations he introduced on and off the field that brought largely unexpected and voluminous success to the outfits he's helmed and made him the best credentialed Australian coach of all time.

He did it at the then unfashionable Warringah club in the ‘80s, for NSW in the early 90s, for a freshly-minted Brumbies franchise in the mid-90s and later for the Wallabies - a World Cup win, victory over the British and Irish Lions and a better than 80 per cent winning record is unprecedented.

NEARLY a decade after 60 year-old Macqueen (pictured above in London in 2005) stepped away from full-time coaching, critics suggest his past deeds are largely irrelevant, given he was operating during a different era in a game that has endured and been scarred by tumultuous change.

But like any astute business leader, Macqueen knows the value of surrounding himself with good people and he's quickly stitched up the services of one of the country's most promising coaches, former Sydney University mentor Damien Hill as his assistant. An announcement that England-based Australian Mark Bakewell has signed on as forwards coach is in the wind.

While Macqueen's never been away from the game - his involvement in the development of the much maligned Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) kept him at the centre of the rugby universe, albeit under a hail of criticism -- the coach concedes he has to adapt.

"I think the technology has changed tremendously," he says. "And the strengthening and conditioning has certainly improved.

"(But) from a skill level point of view, it's probably not so much because we've been kicking the ball a lot and most teams have not been running as much."

Macqueen, like many Super 14 devotees, sees positive signs in a change this season in the interpretation of the laws at the breakdown, insisting the tackler fully release the ball carrier before contesting possession. This ‘tweak' in the way referees oversee the bamboozling collision of arms, legs and torsos after a player is brought to ground seems to be encouraging ball-in-hand rugby in the southern hemisphere.

"At the moment it seems to be working in the Super 14," he says, perhaps ironically, given the ELV breakdown changes, rightly or wrongly, were condemned in some circles as a reason many games developed into kickathons.

But Macqueen warns a single instruction from the International Rugby Board on interpreting other aspects of the breakdown laws could turn things on their head again.

"It reminds me a lot of the way games were played in '96-'97 and then there was an edict that went out in ‘99 to concentrate on the attacking team and sealing off (the ball from the opposition) and that changed the game dramatically."

Macqueen reiterated his belief that given time, the wisdom that would have been gained from fully implementing the now largely junked ELVs globally would have helped rugby realise its potential as a spectator sport, especially in Australia where it blazed in the public eye around the time of the Wallabies' World Cup win in 1999 until about 2005.

"But life goes on," he says.

"Look, it's very important we keep it as a game for all shapes and sizes ... but I do think we seriously need to look at the laws and see in a very sensible way, if we can adapt them so skillful play is rewarded."

His professional focus now, of course, is not to be an architect of change in the laws, but rather find ways for his Melbourne team to master the type of game officials allow rugby to become in the next few years.

"We have a fair idea, without going too much into it, and that gives you the opportunity to select the kind of players we need to play the game that way."

As crowds have become disenchanted with excessive kicking and negative play in recent seasons, nothing less than the continued existence of Australian rugby as a top tier sport depends heavily on the game again embracing skillful attacking play, usually performed by mobile, attack-minded players.

That would have been at the forefront of the minds of Macqueen's recruitment team when they went courting players around the world.

But apart from Cipriani - a player on the outer with key figures in England - the Rebels' campaign met with very little success initially.

"I suppose I'm a bit shocked at some of the salaries of the players, particularly overseas. It's taken me a bit by surprise," says Macqueen.

Nevertheless the puzzle is slowly coming together, he insists, and the Rebels are on track to compile the "intelligent" team Macqueen desires.

"I hope we have an intelligent side, one that's got very high standards and is challenging the way the games being played at present - playing a little differently."

Macqueen's interest in players such as former Australian captain Mortlock, current Wallaby captain Rocky Elsom and vice captain Berrick Barnes, playmaker Daniel Halangahu and Welsh international and Gloucester skipper Gareth Delve reflect the coach's desire for an authoritative group who can think on their feet.

He'll only get a few of the stars on his wishlist but Macqueen's squad will undoubtedly contain a rich mixture of old heads and flashy ballplayers, including a few unpolished gems and junkheap fodder, just like his Brumbies outfits in the 90s.

Indeed, Cipriani is shaping as his David Knox - the discarded NSW five eighth who shone like a beacon at the Brumbies - or a Stephen Larkham who Macqueen helped transform from a decent fullback to world class No.10.

The attractive qualities of Macqueen's teams in the past have been embellished by their willingness to occasionally defy convention, often playing expansive or counter attack rugby when the conditions and state of the game would normally dictate otherwise.

Some observers would contest the stifling defence in rugby union today snuffs out most ambitious plans of attack which is likely why it's an area of the game Macqueen is targeting.

"Because flat line defence has become so much more like rugby league, I think we can probably look to borrow a few things from league to ... counter it," he says, no doubt taken by some of the lines run by attackers in the rival code, their use of dummy runners and perhaps impressed with the short kicking game of teams such as the Rebels' soon-to-be Melbourne cousins, the Storm.

Macqueen is vocal too about implementing a different approach for his players off the field, insisting each Rebel enlister commit to being an ambassador to a local Melbourne club; agree to visit a local school regularly, support a charity and become "involved in a business, particularly something that's going to help them after rugby."

Whether the Rebels' campaign to find their way into the hearts and minds of Melburnians is successful won't become apparent for quite some time. But be assured the Rebels won't be a meek presence in rugby union and perhaps, for that alone, they deserve the support of the grand home of Australian football.

Winning will help their cause, but it's significant that one of Macqueen's most cherished rugby memories other than the 1999 World Cup final triumph over France is a loss - a glorious loss.

As he negotiated the steep descent and hairpin turns near the treacherous Bulli Pass outside Wollongong on his way to Melbourne, Macqueen talked about the breathtaking epic between Australia and New Zealand in 2000 at Stadium Australia in front of 109,874.

It was a game that had everything, a rugby spectacle of incredible urgency, attacking guile and beauty. Australia came back from 24-0 down only for giant All Black Jonah Lomu to snatch a 39-35 victory for the New Zealanders in the final moments.

"I really enjoyed that when Lomu scored in the corner," Macqueen says with the benefit of a decade of reflection and not a hint of sarcasm. "We really played quite well."

It's a testing trip to Melbourne but Macqueen has successfully negotiated the awkward, early part of the journey. Now for the long haul - oh, and when he gets there, will someone please point him in the direction of Port Phillip Bay?