Toulon are to part company with coach Mike Ford. Ford had been under pressure following the team’s 29-9 loss to Clermont Auvergne in Sunday’s Champions Cup quarter-final and Toulon’s owner, Mourad Boudjellal, has come to a mutual agreement with the former Bath head coach to curtail his short-term contract ahead of this weekend’s all-important Top 14 encounter with Toulouse at the Stade Velodrome in Marseille.

Ford, who took up the post at the turn of the year following his dismissal by Bath last May, knew last week that his contract would not be extended when Toulon announced that former France scrum-half and captain Fabien Galthié would be taking over in the summer.

The volatile Boudjellal has made no secret of the fact that he wanted to bring Galthié to the club but it was expected that Ford would stay until the end of the season. Galthié was unable to step in before then following his own difficult contractual severance from Montpellier. Now it has been decided to bring forward the changeover with forwards coach Marc Dal Maso expected to prepare the team.

Ford himself benefited from the turmoil at the club when assuming a fuller role of responsibility when Diego Domínguez was forced out. Other coaches, such as Steve ­Meehan, once of Bath, and Jacques Delmas, have also left this season although there has been one notable arrival in former Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill, who was brought in by Ford to help with forwards ahead of taking up the reins next season with Pro12 side Edinburgh.