Bristol yesterday lost their managing director, rugby director and captain but the club's owner Malcolm Pearce could not have had a bigger smile had the Shoguns landed the Premiership and Heineken Cup double.

Jack Rowell is returning to Bath after two years as Bristol's managing director while the Shoguns' rugby director Dean Ryan was released from his contract, which had a year to run, at his own request and is expected to join Gloucester as deputy to their director of rugby Nigel Melville.

The Bristol captain and former Australia centre Jason Little has had his request to be released from his contract accepted. Pearce said a replacement would be signed over the weekend, fuelling speculation that Mike Catt could be on his way from Bath.

Pearce, who held an outdoor press conference yesterday at a pub next door to the Recreation Ground after Bath turned down his request for a joint press conference to announce Rowell's move, said: "We have signed heads of agreement with a phenomenal player but I cannot yet say who it is for legal reasons."

Rowell admitted that his first task on returning to Bath, the club he coached for 16 years until 1994 with unprecedented success, would be to try to persuade the England and Lions centre Catt to remain after reports that he had fallen out with senior figures at the club.

The Bath general manager Bob Calleja denied that a consortium had been set up to buy out the club's owner Andrew Brownsword. "Andrew has been superb," said Rowell. "It is a question of getting a better balance between the playing and investment sides."

The former New Zealand selector Peter Thorburn will take over from Ryan at Bristol three months after joining the club's coaching staff on a temporary basis. Pearce is now Bristol's chairman and chief executive.

The Heineken Cup holders Leicester have drawn Béziers, Neath and Calvisano and Cardiff and Northampton have been paired together for the second campaign running. London Irish, playing in the competition for the first time, are in a tough pool which includes Toulouse and Newport.

Scotland will play South Africa at Murrayfield on November 16 while Wales will field an unchanged side for tomorrow's second Test against South Africa in Cape Town.

Heineken Cup draw

Pool One: Béziers, Calvisano, Leicester, Neath.
Pool Two: Gloucester, Munster, Perpignan, Viadana.
Pool Three: Glasgow, Llanelli, Bourgoin, Sale.
Pool Four: Bristol, Leinster, Montferrand, Swansea.
Pool Five: Edinburgh, Newport, London Irish, Toulouse.
Pool Six: Biarritz, Northampton, Cardiff, Ulster.