Shane Horgan has retired from Rugby with immediate effect due to a long term knee injury. Leinster confirmed the 33 year old’s retirement in a statement on Wednesday.

Horgan was a part of Ireland’s so called “golden generation” scoring 21 tries for his country in his 65 test appearances. He also boasts a set of three Lions appearances on the 2005 tour of New Zealand.

Having made his debut for Ireland in 2000 Horgan was a part of the Ireland side right up until his last appearance in 2009 against Wales Rugby team. He represented the province of Leinster throughout his senior career and made his final appearance for Leinster last May in a clash with their fierce rivals Munster in the Celtic League final. Leinster lost that encounter but in Horgan’s time in the side they won two Heineken Cup and two Celtic League titles.

Stephen Ferris is free to play for Ireland in Paris this Saturday after escaping punishment in a disciplinary hearing on Wednesday.

The flanker was sin-binned and cited for a tackle on Wales forward Ian Evans in the dying minutes of Sunday’s 23-21 defeat.

The subsequent penalty allowed Leigh Halfpenny to kick Wales to victory in a dramatic climax in Dublin, and a ban for Ferris would have added salt to Irish wounds.
However, a Six Nations statement explained how after careful analysis it was decided the tackle “did not uphold the citing”.

Ferris expressed his relief on Twitter, saying: “Thank goodness that is all over. Happy man.”

Wales lock Bradley Davies has received a seven-week ban for a dangerous tip tackle in the same game. In worse news for Ireland, fly-half Jonny Sexton is a doubt after suffering a thigh injury in kicking practice.

The Ireland rugby team has recently managed to sign up Paul O’Connell for this season and has appointed him as the captain for the 2012 Rugby World Cup.

This has been great news for them team as Paul is a star player and has gone on to win 82 titles for his country as a captain out of the total of 127 appearances that he has made.

All this goes on to show that he is quite capable of helping the Ireland rugby team. Paul has recently been having quite a number of injuries and hence was unable to be at his best performance.

However, the fact that he has signed up with the Ireland rugby team just after his injury has gone on to show that the club is definitely going to progress. He has always been a key pivotal player for Ireland and Munster and has made sure that he has brought about quite an impact to the game with his performance.

In the absence of regular captain Brian O’Driscoll, who will miss the forthcoming Six Nations whilst recovering from shoulder surgery, it has been confirmed that experienced lock Paul O’Connell will lead the Irish.

Munster Rugby captain O’Connell has led his nation in the past, against France in 2004 and in an reshuffled side against England in the build up to last year’s World Cup.

As well as the experience that comes with captaining his nation and one of the giants of European club Rugby, O Connell also showed excellent leadership skills when he skippered the British and Irish Lions on their 2009 tour of South Africa.

The next stage of his international and captaining careers will begin on February 5th when Ireland take on Wales in their Six Nations opener at the Aviva Stadium. The latest Betfair Six Nations Betting odds suggest that he'll get off to a winning start.

Ireland’s pool stage victory over Australia has been voted the best game of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. In a tournament that has to be seen as an overall disappointment for the Irish team the victory over eventual Bronze medal winners Australia provided the tournaments best match, according to the official World Cup Facebook fan site.

The draw was thrown wide open by the Irish victory, effectively setting up the prospect of a Northern Hemisphere half of the draw and a Southern Hemisphere side. The result would be a North versus South Final and a real chance for the Irish to make it to their first World Cup Final. It soon proved this was not to be, with the Welsh seeing off the Irish team in the quarters before being dispatched of themselves by France to set up a repeat of the 1987 final against New Zealand.

Felix Jones and Conor Murray have been named in the latest Ireland squad. The squad includes several players who are in the process of returning from long-term injuries, including Stephen Ferris and Rob Kearney.

Short-term injury victims Shane Jennings and Tony Buckley are also named in the panel.

Shane Horgan is out with a knee injury.

Horgan and Ulster duo Ian Humphreys and Nevin Spence were not considered for selection after undergoing surgery on long-standing injuries.

Ulster scrum-half Ruan Pienaar has been selected as the Player of the Year by the players themselves. Tony McGahan of Munster was selected as Coach of the Season while the Try of the Season prize went to the Ospreys' Ashley Beck.

Munster's Ronan O'Gara won the Golden Boot award and Toby Faletau of the Newport Gwent Dragons is the Young Player of the Season.

Alan Quinlan won the Chairman's Award.

Coach Declan Kidney has said that the margin by which Ireland beat Scotland should be more than the 21-18 scoreline.

The Irish scored the game's three tries but another high penalty count kept the Scots in the contest right to the end.

"We are not overly happy. We probably scored 30 points but the trouble is nine were for them," said Kidney.

"We must look at the things we can control. We do contest the break down and make no apology for that."

Ireland's Stephen Ferris will not be appearing in the match against Scotland beacause of knee injury. The Ulster flanker is still troubled by a knee injury and will miss the game at Murrayfield next Sunday after undergoing another scan on the problem.

Stephen Ferris will have a further scan next Friday as he attempts to be fit to face Wales and England in mid-March.

Ospreys winger Tommy Bowe looks likely to be fit to face the Scots.

Bowe has resumed training and was included in the Ospreys panel for the Magners League game against Treviso.

Stephen Ferris is set to miss the Italy-Ireland clash in Rome due to injury. The Ulster player told BBC Sport on Friday that he was resigned to missing the match because of a knee injury.

"It is now looking as though I am going to miss the Italy game," said Ferris.

Already out for the injury-hit Irish are Tommy Bowe, Shane Horgan, John Hayes, Jamie Heaslip, Andrew Trimble, Rob Kearney and Geordan Murphy.