Six Nations Championship: As Welsh rugby woke up yesterday morning to the latest in a long line of crises, Gareth Thomas was far from the madding crowd, preparing for Toulouse's league fixture at Narbonne on Saturday.

The captain, whose stand-off with a journalist last week showed that his authority over the players was greater than that of the then head coach Mike Ruddock, was nowhere to be seen as his deputy, Michael Owen, and the acting head coach, Scott Johnson, faced the media at the squad's Vale of Glamorgan base.

Thomas conducted one interview, with the presenter of a BBC Radio Wales phone-in programme, in which he paid tribute to Ruddock. Had he played any part in the coach's abrupt resignation the previous night, he showed no signs of it.

Ruddock's sudden departure is set to leave a void, as Johnson, the players' preferred choice to take over, is likely to return to Australia at the end of the Six Nations. Johnson has been the assistant coach throughout Ruddock's reign, but has been offered a job on Australia's management team, and if he leaves there will be no obvious successor to Ruddock.

The "official reasons" for Ruddock's departure were that he had quit for the sake of his family, concerned that he was spending too much time away from home, and that he had gone immediately, rather than at the end of the championship, because his position was untenable, given that the players knew that he would not be staying beyond March.

Events yesterday morning told a different story. As players and management gathered before training, they were called together by an official from the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and told: "We all know the reasons why Mike Ruddock has gone, but we all have to stick to the official reasons given when approached by the media."

And when Ruddock had met WRU chief executive Steve Lewis on Tuesday morning to discuss his future, it was agreed he would carry on until his contract expired at the end of April and would not seek a renewal. A set of briefing notes prepared for officials present at the press conference to announce the coach's departure contained the lines: "Mike Ruddock, Scott Johnson and Clive Griffiths (the defence coach) have been in place as a management team for the last two years. They are still in place, and will be so for the duration of the championship, so the Wales team is in a state of stability."

But in the minutes leading up to the start of the conference, it was decided by the WRU that Ruddock would depart with immediate effect, leaving some Wales supporters yesterday to criticise him on phone-ins and message boards for abandoning the team, which is defending their Six Nations crown after winning the grand slam last year, half-way through a campaign.

While Ruddock last night played down reports of rifts with some of his players, including Thomas, he expressed his dismay at not being able to see out his contract.

"I spoke to Gareth Thomas and Michael Owen this morning," said Ruddock. "I stressed to them that I wanted to remain as coach until the end of the season. I received a request on Tuesday night from my employers, the Welsh Rugby Union, to stand down with immediate effect. I respected their wishes and agreed to leave my post straight away."

There are two perceived reasons for Ruddock's departure: that he had lost the support of some of his players, exemplified by the Thomas-inspired stand-off at last week's press conference, and that the new contract he had been discussing with the WRU since last year's grand slam success, which would take him to next year's World Cup and beyond, had been taken off the table.

Ruddock said he was unaware of any player discontent. "I understand that there has been a lot of speculation about a supposed falling out between me and some of the players in the Welsh camp. Gareth and Michael have assured me today that that was not the case. I wish the players every success in their last three Six Nations matches and the best of luck in the longer term."

The players' problems with Ruddock were not personal. As Johnson said yesterday: "You would struggle to meet a nicer man." But some, the captain believed to be foremost amongst them, felt he was not hands-on enough as a coach and that he was not an ideas man. And as Ruddock's authority gradually eroded, Thomas's stock rose.

He had the last word yesterday.

"As players, we are devastated Mike has left," Thomas said. "Even though he has gone, we still respect him as much now as when he was coach. It is important that we respect his decision. "