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National League 1
In 2003 the Northern Ford Premiership was completely re-organised into National League One and National League Two. Teams that finished in the top ten of the previous Ford Premiership joined National One and the nine botton teams joined National League Two, and the latter were later joined by London Skolars from the Rugby Conference. York City Knights took the place of the defunct York Wasps in 2003. There was also an attempt to createa a National League Three, this was created from teams from the Rugby Conference and from BARLA amateur leagues. It was initially intended that there would be a promotion and relegation between National League Two and Three but by 2007 the Third group was scrapped and renamed as the Conference Nation Division.
The first group uses a play-off structure to determine the victors who are then eleigible for promotion to "The Super", being replaced by the team that is relegated from the other league. League Two functions in a similar way with two teams being relegated from National One and then being replaced by a team finishing top of the second group and the winner of a play-off structure involving the six teams finishing beind the league leaders in National Two. After 2009 there will be no automatic promotion or relegation and new teams will be admitted on a franchise basis. 3
yearly reviews of franchises will take place to ensure ambitious clubs
lower down the leagues can still be successful.
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