Leeds Carnegie will play in the Guinness Premiership next season after their promotion was confirmed on Wednesday.
Headingley club to return to Premiership
Leeds Carnegie will play in the Guinness Premiership next season after their promotion was confirmed on Wednesday.
Leeds won the National League One by a 14-point margin and have satisfied the Professional Game Board's minimum standards criteria for promotion.
Leeds chief executive Gary Hetherington said: "We are delighted to have received notification from the RFU management board that our promotion has been confirmed.
"We are proud of the infrastructure we have in place at Headingley Carnegie Stadium, our training academy at Kirkstall and through our partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University.
"Under Andy Key and Neil Back we have moved forward this season, and we are looking forward to the pre-season and making sure we are in the best possible position on our return to the Guinness Premiership."
However, it will be a new-look Carnegie side that takes its place in the top flight in 2009-10 after the club signed only eight players to new deals.
The list includes captain Mike MacDonald, Wales international number eight Rhys Oakley, full-back Leigh Hinton and hooker Rob Rawlinson, while Argentine prop Juan Gomez has agreed a one-year deal after initially joining on loan from Leinster earlier this season.
Several players will not be returning, including wing prospect Tom Biggs and fellow England sevens international Rob Vickers.
Back-row forward Jon Dunbar, fly-half Alberto Di Bernardo, prop Adam Hopcroft and centre James Brooks are also among those moving to new clubs.
Leeds rugby director Andy Key said: "While we achieved our main objective of gaining promotion, there has also been a lot of hard work gone on behind the scenes to change the culture of our approach to performance under our performance director Steve Nance.
"We are hoping to learn the lessons from last season and we will be looking to add quality to this group of players."
