Aviva Premiership
Key shown the door by Leeds
ESPNscrum Staff
February 17, 2011
Andy Key has left Leeds © Getty Images
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Leeds Carnegie have announced that director of rugby Andy Key has left the club with immediate effect as part of a restructuring of their management team.

The Yorkshire club are currently bottom of the Aviva Premiership, three points behind 11th-placed Newcastle, having claimed just one league win all season.

Key joined Leeds along with current head coach and former England flanker Neil Back in 2008 and was named the Premiership's rugby director of the season last term after masterminding their survival in the top flight.

Back will now take sole charge of the squad while chief executive Gary Hetherington will assume certain aspects of Key's role.

"This was a tough decision to make however we felt it was important that we took the decision as part of overall vision for our rugby operation," Hetherington said. "Neil Back will now be in sole charge of all team matters and I, as chief executive, will take up some of the other areas that Andy was responsible for.

"We will not be looking to appoint a new director of rugby. We would like to thank Andy for his outstanding contribution to the club in his time here and he leaves with our best wishes."

Key, a long time servant on Leicester's backroom staff prior to his time with Leeds, highlighted the strides made during his time at the club.

"First of all, I would like to say that I am proud of the achievements we have made here at Leeds Carnegie during my time at the club," he said. "While I am disappointed not to be seeing the vision through to its conclusion, having met with the management, I understand the direction they want to take the club in.

"We have worked exceptionally hard since 2008 to take the club into a positive and professional position and I wish the team and the club all the very best for the future. It has been a difficult season for Leeds however I feel that we have made big strides in recent weeks and I have every confidence that the team will continue that good work."

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