Callard is latest Premiership casualty

Jon Callard joined the growing number of fallen Premiership coaches yesterday, his removal from Bath another stark reminder of the club's fall from grace.

Not even the memory of that glorious day in Bordeaux when he won the European Cup off his own boot could save the former England full back from paying the price for Bath's miserable season.

The club who are out of Europe, the Powergen Cup and fourth bottom of the Premiership have reacted to the crisis by creating a new post of team director and giving it to Michael Foley, the former Wallaby hooker hired as Callard's No.2 three months ago.

As proof that losing rugby coaches are now given as short a shrift as football managers, four have been replaced within the past month. After 13 years at The Rec, Callard, 36, was one of the last links with the team Jack Rowell built into the supreme British club of the supposedly amateur era. How ironic that the man who contributed 894 goals to their success should end up a victim of the club's despairing attempt to reclaim their dominant position.

They have won nothing in domestic competition since the cup and league double six years ago.While they were the first British club to win the European Cup, thanks to Callard accounting for every point in their 19-18 win over Brive in 1998, Bath's subsequent predicament has been made all the worse by the never-ending achievements of their greatest rivals Leicester.

Callard said: 'With the difference of opinion as to the way the club should move forward it has been agreed by both parties to go our separate ways.'