THE first piece of the jigsaw which could see Wharfedale promoted into the Allied Dunbar League of England's top teams has fallen into place.

London Welsh have accepted a place in the Welsh National League Division One, creating a vacancy in Allied Dunbar League Two.

As reported in the Craven Herald, that could mean a reshuffle with Wharfedale, who missed out on promotion by one place, moving up to fill the vacancy.

More likely is that only one club will be relegated from the Allied Dunbar League and next to bottomRugby will stay up. But there is also talk of expanding Allied Dunbar Two from 14 to 16 clubs by having no relegation at all this year. If that happens then there would be a vacancy, likely to be filled by Wharfedale.

The Rugby Union are refusing to comment on London Welsh's departure as they had not received formal notification.

London Welsh director Bill Carey-Evans said: "The heart was always wanting to go to Wales but we had to consider the financial implications. Ultimately we felt that the best future for the club would be within the Welsh set-up."

Meanwhile Wharfedale's three representatives in the Yorkshire team due to play Devon in the county championship final at Twickenham on June 3 will play, despite the date clashing with the club's tour of Washington, on the west coast of the USA.

Captain John Lawn had agreed to forego the tour from the start if Yorkshire reached the final while Hedley Verity was not in the Wharfedale tour party. Second row David Lister will fly out with the Wharfedale squad this weekend but return on Thursday and fly to London to meet up with the Yorkshire squad.

Scrum half Graham Smith was due to be on the bench for Yorkshire but will take his place on the USA tour as scheduled.

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