Doncaster will get a shot at reaching the Super League next year after a radical overhaul of domestic rugby league got the green light.
Super League clubs voted unanimously in favour of a proposal to ditch the current licensing system in favour of a return to promotion and relegation at a meeting on Friday.
The top two divisions will each be cut to 12 teams in 2015.
Those leagues will then split into three play-off groups of eight two thirds of the way through the season.
That means if Doncaster finish in the top four of next year’s Championship they will get a crack at the bottom four sides in Super League for a place in the top flight in 2016.
The new structure, which is expected to be ratified by the Rugby League board this week, was the preferred option of Dons’ general manager Carl Hall, who greeted the outcome news on Twitter as “great news for Doncaster”.
Dons must finish in the top ten of this season’s Championship, which kicks off next month, to stay within touching distance of their first ever season in Super League.
Hall said last week that he and the club’s new owners, Doncaster Rovers, are strategically planning to reach the Super League within five years.
The developments signal the end of a bitter wrangle over the future of the domestic game after six ‘rebel’ Super League clubs walked out of a meeting in October, angry about the governance of the game and allocation of Sky TV money.
The RFL are expected to officially unveil the new structure later this month.