Back future under the spotlight after defeat leaves Leeds facing relegation

Leeds finished bottom of the league on points difference despite a brave display at Heineken Cup finalists Northampton Saints, which left them agonisingly short of completing a miracle escape.

Relegation will not be ratified until May 18 at the conclusion of the Championship play-off final – if Cornish Pirates defeat Worcester then there will be no promotion or relegation because the Cornwall club do not meet Premier Rugby entry criteria.

But the Leeds board will meet on Wednesday to begin planning for next season as a Championship club.

And the future of head coach Back will be at the top of their agenda.

The World Cup-winning England forward was again non-committal over his future in the wake of Saturday’s 31-24 defeat at Franklin’s Gardens.

The sense is he will leave it in the hands of chief executive Gary Hetherington and the board, who confirmed yesterday that they would be meeting Back to review the season.

Back has one season left on a contract he signed last year but after three years at the club, which began with promotion and survival in the first two campaigns, their impending demotion means the club are back to where they were when he first joined in June, 2008.

The 66-cap flanker remains a big name within the game and may be tempted elsewhere if an offer comes in, but his reticence in recent days over what his future holds may owe much to the fact that it is entirely in the club’s hands.

For their part, Leeds begin next season with debts of £2m, owed to the bank from conventional borrowing and not to Leeds Metropolitan University and chairman Paul Caddick as previously reported.

Back is a high earner and the need to reduce costs may be a deciding factor in any decision taken.

Asked what his future held after his side had come within one try on Saturday of earning a try bonus and overhauling Newcastle at the bottom, Back said: “It’s a good question which I will be asking when I leave you guys (the press).

“My focus now is on getting back in that changing room, getting round all the boys and making sure they’re OK.

“I have not spoken to the board.

“There will undoubtedly be movement in staff and players, that’s what happens at the end of every season, whether you are relegated or stay in the Premiership.”

Hetherington said yesterday: “I will be meeting with Neil Back on Wednesday, as we would do at the end of every season, to review the campaign and the areas we have fallen short.

“The board will then approve the budget for next season and we will be planning for life in the Championship, regardless of the play-off final result.

“We have a debt of £2m that we need to begin repaying that has amassed over the past two years.

“However, we will go into the Championship aiming to bounce back at the first opportunity but realise the challenge that is in front of us. Compared to our previous two relegations we are in a much stronger position with over 20 players contracted for next season, a dozen players out of contract and only three players who have release clauses in the event of relegation.”

England hooker Steve Thompson is one of those and he is already bound for Wasps.

Sale Sharks have activated the release clause in Scott Mathie’s contract and Argentinian prop Juan Gomez is the third player with a get-out option.

Luther Burrell and Kearnan Myall are also joining Sale while Ceiron Thomas has signed for Pirates, the side that can still play a part in what division Leeds play in next season.

Mike MacDonald and Gareth Hardy are among those believed to be out of contract, but the strength of Leeds’s position is underpinned by the fact that they will have more than 20 players in place for the 2011-12 campaign and not the seven that Back and Andy Key began the rebuilding job with back in 2008.

Marco Wentzel has already signed and committed to next season and their remaining star name and bankable asset, Hendre Fourie – a rumoured target for Gloucester and London Irish – is also contracted for one more year.

The South African said last week that he has yet to hear of any other offers and although he has a place in England’s World Cup squad to safeguard, he would be happy to stay in West Yorkshire unless an offer came in that he could not refuse.

“It’s in the club’s hands, it’s not really in my hands,” he said after scoring a try in the blistering opening spell Leeds produced on Saturday that gave them hope of avoiding relegation.

“We’ll have to wait and see what their decision is, then I’ll make my decision.

“Like Backy said to us, nobody knows what’s going to happen until the board meets so it’s all in their hands.”

On the match itself, which saw Leeds build a 24-3 lead inside 18 minutes only to surrender to the inevitable Northampton onslaught, Back said: “It is tough to take.

“We had an incredibly difficult task to come up against the Heineken Cup finalists and with the form and quality they’ve got in their team.

“I’m proud of the whole squad, as I have been all year, because Leeds have never failed through lack of effort, it’s ultimately because we are collectively not good enough and that has been the difference.”

Premiership is where we must be says Browne

Daniel Browne believes if Leeds Carnegie can retain the majority of their players this summer they will be a stronger force when they bounce back to the Aviva Premiership.

Five players are already leaving the club in Steve Thompson, Luther Burrell, Kearnan Myall, Scott Mathie and Ceiron Thomas with more expected during the close season, regardless of whether Cornish Pirates beat Worcester and save Leeds from demotion.

If Worcester win the Championship play-off, a second relegation in three years will be confirmed, but 31-year-old Browne, pictured right, is confident that the 20 or so players contracted for next season – of which he is one – can rebound quickly.

“I’m contracted for next season and the good thing is a lot of players have shown their commitment to stay with the club, regardless of what happens,” said the New Zealander, who joined the club from Bath last summer.

“I hope that we have a budget and a team that’s going to be competitive, because Leeds have been a bit of a yo-yo team for the last few years and we really want to have that belief that we can have a team that will bounce straight back. Then we will have the foundations to build on that and be competitive.

“We don’t want to be a feeder club for other clubs which is what has happened here in the past.”

Leeds’ future will not be determined until May 18 and the conclusion of the Championship play-off final, leaving much of the squad in limbo as to what the future holds.

They would gratefully accept the reprieve if Cornish Pirates can grant it, and the evidence of Saturday suggests the Leeds that scared the Heineken Cup finalists, rather than the ones that surrendered meekly to Harlequins and Wasps, would be deserving of such a gift.

But Browne said: “It’s difficult, we have shown in glimpses that we deserve to be here. It would be bittersweet to stay up like that but at the same time we’d definitely take it.

“We knew how important today was, we know how many jobs are on the line, not just the players on the field but the staff, the trainers and everyone, there was a lot at stake. Unfortunately the club will be in limbo for a while.

“We’ve shown this season that when we do the basics well we can compete and beat some of the best teams in the Premiership.

“The margins are so tight, though, in the Premiership – a couple of mistakes really cost you. There were a couple of key mistakes that cost us against Northampton and it really hurts right now.”