LEIGH face an exhausting end to their season.

It follows a decision that the Premiership competition for clubs in Divisions One and Two will be grouped into four regional pools.

The competition will begin on July 27 - after the end of the league campaign - and each club will play eight pool matches in a tight timetable between then and September 7.

Several rounds of fixtures are scheduled for Wednesday evenings. And that adds up to players facing a stiff programme of two games a week for several weeks.

Leigh have been put in Pool C along with Keighley, Rochdale Hornets, Swinton and Widnes.

The top two sides in each pool will go into the quarter-finals to be played on September 14.

Dropped from the tournament will be the bottom two teams in the Second Division - currently Doncaster and Prescot.

The eight clubs reaching the quarter-finals will be placed in an open draw for a knockout competition. The Premiership Final will be on September 28.

Any player transferred after August 18 will not be eligible for the remaining pool fixtures or the knockout stages of the competition.

Pool A: Featherstone Rovers, Hull, Hull KR, Wakefield Trinity, York.

Pool B: Batley, Bramley, Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Hunslet.

Pool C: Keighley, Leigh, Rochdale Hornets, Swinton, Widnes.

Pool D: Barrow, Carlisle, Lancashire Lynx, Whitehaven, Workington Town.

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