Somerset join the club as game goes nationwide

Rugby League has embarked on the most ambitious and far-reaching expansion in its 108-year history with the establishment for the first time of a national pyramid structure.

The days when one or more divisions of professional clubs existed in isolation from pockets of interest elsewhere came to an end at Westminster yesterday as the new blueprint was unveiled.

As well as the fully professional clubs in Super League and the mainly semi-professional ones in National Leagues I and II, next season will see a new National League III that will bring together amateur clubs from the heartlands and those from far-flung expansion areas.

The league took applications from clubs in both categories before deciding on the 10 to be included in its ground-breaking scheme.

"I couldn't be more pleased with the blend we've achieved," said the Rugby League's National Development manager, Neil Wood. "It's the ideal testing ground for both cultures. The northern teams could be in for a shock about the quality of some other teams who in turn will be able to test exactly where they are in the scheme of things."

At the moment, there will be no promotion for the winners of the National League III grand final in September, be it one of the traditional teams like Woolston, of Warrington, or Dudley Hill, from Bradford, or a club from Coventry or Crawley.

"But what we would hope for eventually is that the winner of the National League III grand final will be qualified in playing terms for the rigours of National League II and the professional game," Wood said.

Below that, the Rugby League Conference – the national summer competition set up just a few years ago with a mere handful of clubs – will be expanded to 52 clubs, playing in eight regional conferences.

They include new clubs in places as diverse as Aberavon, Bristol, Gosport, Greenwich, Liverpool, Somerset, Telford and Whitley Bay, some of whom might one day aspire to rise through the ranks to full professional status.

The league says that the new clubs represent an extra 1,500 players, coaches and administrators actively involved in the game and that in a key area like London there are now opportunities for players at every possible level. The London Broncos are well established in Super League, the London Skolars will play their first season as a semi-professional club in National League II this year and, below that, there is rugby league activity in 23 of the capital's 32 boroughs, Wood said.

David Hinchliffe, the secretary of the All Party Rugby League Group in parliament and a leading fighter for the free gangway between the two codes of rugby, said that yesterday's announcements vindicated that struggle.

"There were times when one or two people were moving to rugby union that I wondered whether we had done the right thing," he said. "Today proves that it was the right thing and I'm very optimistic."