Callard leaves Leeds Tykes after relegation

LEEDS TYKES have parted company with Jon Callard after the club’s relegation to National 2 North was confirmed following last weekend’s 75-10 defeat to promotion-chasing Cambridge.

Callard, number two to Phil Davies during the most successful period in the club’s history in the noughties, took on the head coach role at the start of the season.

But results haven’t been as hoped and the Tykes will now play at their lowest level since they operated in the old Fourth Division in 1996.

It has been a mighty fall from grace for the 2005 Powergen Cup winners, who were fortunate to escape being sent to the bottom of the league pyramid when financial mismanagement saw the club enter into a Company Voluntary Liquidation in 2019.

Whilst people like CEO Gary Hetherington and administrator Mike Bidgood remain involved at the Tykes, there has been no sort of continuity on the coaching front.

Pete Seabourne, a leading part of the management at Leeds for the past two seasons, will assume immediate responsibility for rugby matters for the rest of this season and will be director of rugby for the 2023/24 campaign.

Seabourne, Head of Rugby at the University of Leeds, will be the 14th individual to take charge of first-team affairs at Leeds since the club were relegated from the Premiership for the first time in 2006.

Next season could be the last time National One is played in its current format.

A big shake-up of the league structure from levels one to four is being planned for season 2024/25, including proposals to split English rugby’s third tier into 14-team North and South divisions.