Leigh Cry Foul As Crusaders Win Place for Wales

Widnes were left devastated for the third time in little more than a decade yesterday as next season's Super League licenses were awarded to Salford and the Celtic Crusaders, leaving the former Challenge Cup kings out in the cold.

The Cheshire club, who were Wembley winners four times between 1974 and 1984 and were crowned world club champions in 1989 after beating the Canberra Raiders at Old Trafford, missed out by a whisker on the original Super League competition in 1996 and were relegated in 2005 to make way for the Catalans Dragons.

Now they have fallen victim again to the Rugby Football League's desire to broaden the flagship competition's geographical appeal, as the Bridgend-based Crusaders, who have been playing for three seasons in the National Leagues, will aim to follow the successful example of the Catalans over the next three years.

There were protests outside Widnes' Stobart Stadium while Leigh's chief executive, Allan Rowley, whose club also had their application rejected, said the Rugby Football League's directors "should hang their heads in shame" for preferring the Crusaders to another club from the code's northern stronghold.

Steve O'Connor, the haulage millionaire who rescued the Vikings from insolvency last winter, chose his language more carefully, but admitted he was "perplexed and devastated" when informed of Widnes' exclusion by email minutes before the official announcement at 10am yesterday.

"We need to sit down and assess the full implications of this ruling over the next few days," he said - each of the 19 applicants are due to receive an explanation of their strengths and weaknesses from the RFL today.

O'Connor added: "There was great competition for those 14 licenses and some of the applicants were bound to lose out. I feel it is vital for the game as a whole that the Super League flourishes under this new license system and I'm still convinced that Widnes Vikings have all the credentials to become a powerful force in Super League. We must build on the solid foundations we have laid down over the past eight months and prepare an absolutely irresistible license application for the future."

However, they will not be able to do so for almost three years, with yesterday's verdict setting in stone membership of the Super League until 2012. All 12 existing Super League clubs have retained their places but Wakefield Trinity Wildcats received the strongest warning that unless they nail down the new stadium they have been promising for so long before the next round of licenses are awarded in 2011, they should expect to miss out.

One man left with mixed feelings was Jim Mills, the Welshman who has given Widnes long service as a player and chairman since coming north from Cardiff.

"I'm so pleased the Crusaders are in because they are developing the game so well down in Wales," he said. "But I'm really shocked about Widnes, because with the stadium they have and the financial backing from Stobart, I thought they were nailed on.

"It's going to be a big shock for everyone in the town because you only have to walk around here to realize that it's rugby league through and through. I just hope they stick with the team in the National Leagues now."

Meanwhile the Crusaders, whose reliance on Australian players prompted Rowley's criticism, started their bid to win hearts and minds across Wales by celebrating their license in the Walkabout bar in Cardiff last night. "We started three years ago, thinking pigs might fly," admitted their coach, John Dixon, a former schoolteacher who worked alongside Wayne Bennett at the Brisbane Broncos and was diagnosed with prostate cancer shortly after taking the Celtic job. "Well, we've achieved what we wanted to do. This is a thrilling time, and the start of another challenge."

Enlarged Super League

Bradford Castleford Catalans Celtic CrusadersHuddersfield HarlequinsHull FCHull KRLeeds Salford St HelensWakefield Warrington Wigan