Ospreys chief Holley on the way out

OSPREYS head coach Sean Holley will leave the Welsh region with immediate effect, it has been reported.

Holley only signed a fresh deal with the Liberty Stadium outfit last summer and has two-and-a-half years left to run on his current deal.

But it’s understood that Holley, who has been at the Ospreys since their formation in 2003, is to go just two months after director of coaching Scott Johnson announced he would leave at the end of the season.

Newspaper reports this morning claim that lawyers are trying to negotiate a settlement on the remainder of Holley’s contract.

A decision on whether a new coaching set-up will be put in place has yet to be made while the region hasn’t commented on the situation at all.

Holley took over first-team duties alongside ex-Wales captain Jonathan Humphreys when former coach Lyn Jones left in May 2008.

Two years later the Ospreys won the inaugural Magners League playoff final, the same season the club lost to Biarritz in the semi-finals of the Heineken Cup.

The region’s inability to go beyond the last eight in Europe has overshadowed their domestic achievements and was a factor behind the departure of several big-name players last summer.

Despite failing to get past the Heineken Cup group stages again this season, the Ospreys are second in the RaboDirect Pro12 as they go in search of their fourth Celtic league crown overall.

But with Johnson leaving for a senior assistant coaching job with Scotland and Holley seemingly on his way out, it leaves the Ospreys hierarchy with the task of finding replacements for one or both.