SSE National League Three North Bradford & Bingley have decided not to replace their director of rugby Martin Whitcombe, who resigned last week.

Instead they have opted to promote former Welsh international Colin Stephens to head coach, leaving Stuart Dixon in charge of the backs and Ronnie Kelly the forwards.

Another change to the Bees’ management structure is that Phil Greaves will ease communications between the club’s committee, coaches and players.

The Bees’ chairman of rugby Peter Rae said: “We are delighted to have all three of our coaches on board so quickly and able to focus on the job in hand, which starts with Saturday's game at home to Beverley.

"Martin did a great job for us and brought some real stability to the club.

"This can be seen by the fact that we have a second team who sit second in their league and a third team who are top of their league.

"We fielded a fourth team last Saturday for the first time in a few years and there is a really positive feel about the club as a whole.

"But we cannot stand still, we have to move on.

“We hope Colin and his team can build on those foundations and get the Bees playing some attractive winning rugby for the rest of this season.”

Bradford & Bingley (home to Beverley): T Kanros; G Stead, B Greaves, S Brimacombe, G Hetherington; P Greaves, R Scull; J Moss, G Lomtadze, R Wederell, R Hughes, B Mitchell, M Mitchell, S Brewer, T Cokell. Replacements: E Peglau, G Ford, T Bills.