End of line for Clarke

Ciaran Clarke, the former Irish international full back who won the last of his five caps against England last year, has been forced to retire from competitive rugby at the age of 30 due to a knee injury.

In fact, Clarke admits he was advised to retire about four years ago after the first operation on his damaged knee cartilage but last Monday his orthopaedic surgeon, John McIlwaine, made it clear to him that a continuation of his career would probably have had serious repercussions in later years.

"He advised me to give it up. There's been no cartilage in the knee and basically I've been running around with no shock absorbers in there for the last five years. I'm lucky enough that I got another four years out of it, but if I carried on I probably wouldn't be able to walk one day."

In truth he was probably never quite the same player again, and was a little unlucky that Warren Gatland, who was a fan, never saw Clarke at his best. Strong at hitting the line, he rarely conceded possession, had good hands, always seemed to have time on the ball and, as his one-time Terenure team-mate Paul Hennebry observed, had "a horse of a left foot."

Regrets, he's had a few. "I'd love to have won a few more caps but circumstances, including my knee, stopped me from doing that." Amid his five caps, two development tours and one senior tour, plus schools and club medals won with Terenure and appearances for Leinster, Clarke finds it easy enough to single out the highlight of that career.

Beating England in 1993; Mick Galwey and his try and all that. That stands out even more so than my drop goal, even though they were my only points for Ireland."

Contracted to Leinster last season, when injury effectively sidelined him from their entire campaign, Clarke has returned to his job as a pharmaceutical representative with Pinewood Health Care, who had granted him a year's leaved of absence.

Munster, meanwhile, have announced a squad of 22 for their trip to Dunvant, against whom they will play a friendly on Sunday morning (kick-off 11.45). The squad is: P Clohessy, J Hayes, M Horan, F Sheehan, K Wood, J Langford, M Galwey, S Leahy, D Corkery, A Quinlan, D Wallace, B O'Meara, T Tierney, P Stringer, J Holland, R O'Gara, M Lynch, J Kelly, A Horgan, J O'Neill, D Crotty.