Former York Knights head coach James Ford has been placed in interim charge of runaway Betfred Championship leaders Featherstone Rovers.

Earlier this evening, the promotion favourites announced that they had parted ways with head coach Sean Long in a shock decision after last night's 25-22 defeat to Halifax Panthers.

That was just the second time that Featherstone have been beaten this season, with the club eight points ahead of second-placed Toulouse Olympique at the summit of the Championship table.

Long, regarded by many as one of the sport's legends after an illustrious career with Great Britain and St Helens, took over the top job from Brian McDermott at the beginning of the season.

However, he has now followed assistant Leon Pryce, who departed after Rovers' defeat to Toulouse in June, out of the doors at the Millennium Stadium.

Ford, who left his position at York ahead of the new season to become assistant coach at Wakefield Trinity, joined Featherstone in a newly-created Director of Rugby role in May.

The 40-year-old, who made a name for himself as one of the country's up and coming managers at York, will oversee Rovers' final six fixtures of the regular season, starting with their trip to play-off chasers Sheffield Eagles on August 18.

In a statement, the club explained that the drastic measure had been taken in order to give the team the best chance of promotion to the Betfred Super League before new IMG grading rules are introduced.

It read: "We can confirm that we have today reached agreement with head coach Sean Long to part company with immediate effect.

"The club has invested significantly this year to ensure that we give ourselves the best possible chance of promotion to Super League in 2023.

"The changes in rules that come into effect from 2024 make it extremely difficult to reach this goal in future years so we are committed to ensure that we leave no stone unturned in delivering this objective.

"The Board have backed this ambition by investing in a playing squad of Super League quality and have been disappointed therefore in this season’s team performance against some of our promotion rivals. 

"As we reach the countdown to the play-off series, we need to ensure that we maximise the huge potential and high quality of our playing roster and we feel this change will enable us to make the required step up which is required.

"We would like to place on record our thanks to Sean Long for his contribution to the club’s efforts this season and wish him well in the future.

"We would ask our fans to continue to support the club in their usual way just as they did in such large numbers at Halifax yesterday, we certainly will need their support in hopefully helping us to get over the line this year

"We have asked Director of Rugby James Ford to take up the Head Coaching role on an interim basis for the remainder of the year along with Ian Hardman, the Club will make a further assessment of whether we need to invest further in our coaching team."