League change for Halifax Vandals

Halifax Vandals will also play Thirsk and Leeds Medics & Dentists after a late structural change to Counties Three Yorkshire.

There was some surprise when Thirsk and Leeds Medics were omitted from the new set up after finishing top two in Yorkshire Four Premier last season.

However they’ve won their appeal to be promoted, meaning Counties Three Yorkshire will be expanded to 14 teams.

As a result, to comply with the RFU rules that teams will play a maximum of 22 league games, clubs will play each other once before the league splits into two sub divisions - Counties Three Yorkshire Premier and Counties Three Yorkshire Shield.

The top 7 sides after the first 13 games will go into Premier, where they will play each once - before the top 4 sides will battle it out for promotion via a play-off system.

The bottom 7 sides will drop into Shield, where the teams will fight it out to avoid relegation.

The league season is scheduled to end on March 11, with the remainder of the season being used for a new national cup competition - with the chance for teams to play at Twickenham.

The Yorkshire Cup competitions are also set to run independently over the course of the season.