Key & Back exit reports a fabrication - Hetherington

Andy Key (left) and Neil Back recently signed a contract extension at Leeds

Leeds Carnegie chief executive Gary Hetherington has hit out angrily at a national newspaper report that he was going to sack his management team.

The Mail on Sunday stated that head coach Neil Back would leave if Leeds suffered a ninth straight defeat at Harlequins on Sunday.

Leeds did lose 51-18 but Hetherington insists that Back's job is safe.

"I was disappointed by the story. It is a complete fabrication," Hetherington told BBC Radio Leeds.

"I was disappointed and annoyed to read that story. It referred to a club source.

"Well anyone who knows Leeds Carnegie knows there is no sources within the club and certainly none that would be involved in decisions like that."

The newspaper story also stated that director of rugby Andy Key's position would be called into question if Leeds lost again at The Stoop.

But Hetherington insists that the board have every faith in the duo, who recently agreed a one-year contract extension at Headingley.

"The story has no foundation whatsoever," added Hetherington.

"We don't reacted to disappointing results by sacking the coach. That is not our way.

"In fact we have only had three coaches here in the last 15 years and the last one left to take a big job with the RFU. We don't sack coaches.

We know that the buck stops with Neil and myself at the end of the day. That's the pressures you accept when you come into an elite sport, but we are not worrying about that

Andy Key

"However we do recognise that we are in a very disappointing position and there needs to be a collective effort to try and turn things around as we did last year."

Key and Back left Leicester in 2008 to take on their first senior management jobs at Headingley.

In their first season they won the Championship and reached the National Trophy final.

In their second they beat all the odds to retain their Premiership status, at the expense of Worcester, which led to Key being named Premiership director of rugby of the year.

But they are now bottom of the table, seven points adrift of 11th-placed Newcastle, having lost all nine of their Premiership matches this season.

Key told BBC Radio Leeds: "We got wind of this story around Thursday, but Gary and the board were brilliant and quashed that rumour straight away.

"They told us that it was not coming from them but from from someone completely divorced from the club, so they put our minds at rest very quickly.

"We informed the players and made it clear what is happening in the media isn't happening behind the scenes here.

"We know that the buck stops with Neil and myself at the end of the day.

"That's the pressures you accept when you come into an elite sport, but we're not worrying about that.

"What we're more focused on is how we work with the team, how the team work with us so we can move on and can demonstrate to everyone, and especially the Yorkshire fans and people, that we can play.

"We do deserve to be somewhere different to where we are at the moment.

"It is going to be a difficult period over Christmas but, if we can get ourselves sorted, we can come out of the Christmas period knowing we are in an upward direction."