The upheaval at Glasgow Warriors continued today when head coach, Kiwi Searancke, left the club by "mutual consent" despite still having a year of his contract to run.

Assistant coach Steve Anderson is now seconded to elite performance analysis for the SRU under the direction of national coach Ian McGeechan. The position of Glasgow second assistant coach, Gordon Macpherson, remains unclear.

Glasgow Warriors Chief Executive, David Jordan, said: "We have a very important sequence of games throughout April in the Bank of Scotland Pro Rugby Cup and to guide the players through that period, Richie Dixon, the SRU’s head of coach development, will return to Glasgow on a caretaker basis to lead the coaching of the team. We have had some poor, poor results and some unfavourable media coverage. We have three games left and, if we can win those three games, we are still in with a shout of qualifying for the Heineken Cup. Hopefully our players will respond to the challenge. Richie is part of the system, is familiar with the players and knows how they click."

Captain Andy Nicol was surprised to hear the news of Searancke's departure: "The poor results were obviously a major factor and, in these circumstances, it is usually the coach who goes, but the players have got to take responsibility as well. We are not putting pressure on ourselves for Friday and are just determined to play the kind of attractive rugby that Glasgow crowds usually enjoy and, if we do that, a win should follow."

Searancke's time at Glasgow was short, but eventful. Glasgow's form slumped this season after an encouraging start and Searancke made no secret of his belief that the current squad of players were not up to the job. It was claimed that some players were barely on speaking terms with Searancke while other players such as Rory Kerr found they were frozen out of the team with little or no explanation. Searancke was also involved in a verbal clash with a member of the Glasgow marketing team and received a warning for his actions.

Boroughmuir coach, Sean Lineen has been linked with a move to Hughenden to coach the Glasgow backs but may now be part of a brand new coaching team. Lineen has formed a formidable coaching team with Iain Paxton at Boroughmuir and they have both been tipped as future coaches of the Scotland international team. The departure of Searancke may give Glasgow a chance to give the Lineen and Paxton partnership a chance to coach at professional level.