Leinster coach Matt Williams was fulsome in his praise of Paul Wallace, his international prop who has been forced to retire from all levels of rugby because of an ankle injury. "Paul is the ultimate professional sportsman," Williams said, "and will be a huge loss to the Leinster team. I hope he can continue in the future in coaching or some other capacity with Irish rugby."

The Leinster and Ireland star who in recent times has been plagued by ankle problems, played his last game for Ireland in last year's World Cup qualifier at home to Georgia.

He was educated at Crescent Comprehensive and University College Cork and first played at international level for an Ireland Schools side that included Victor Costello and the following season (1989/90), David Humphreys.

In October 1991, he made his Under 21 international debut, along with Gary Longwell, in the game against Wales and the following season captained an Under 21 side that included Keith Wood (v England) and then Shane Byrne (v Wales).

He made his senior international debut against Japan during the 1995 World Cup and went on to win 45 caps in that jersey.

Wallace, whose brothers Richard and David were also full internationals, represented the Lions in 1997 and played in all three Tests against the Springboks. Speaking about that tour, English international Jason Leonard had this to say about his front-row partner, " On the pitch, Wally was amazing. I mean nobody gave him much chance of getting into the Test side but he gave it everything from the word go. The South Africans reckoned they would murder him in the scrums, but after the first scrum, in the opening Test, he never had a problem. I thought he had a magnificent tour and played a huge role in the victories over South Africa."