The death took place suddenly at the weekend of Des McKibbin, a former Ireland international, former IRFU president and a member of one of Irelands most renowned rugby families. He was 73.

The news of his death and the circumstances surrounding it has shocked the rugby fraternity not alone in Ulster but throughout the country as the McKibbin name is enshrined in the annals of Irish rugby.

He had travelled from his home in Belfast on Saturday to watch Ireland play the United States in the World Cup on Saturday night. After returning to his hotel, he was taken ill and died shortly afterwards, although medical attention was on hand swiftly.

There was no more familiar figure at Ravenhill when Ulster played or Lansdowne Road or at any venue where Ireland played.

His was a lifetime's involvement in the game from the days when he attended RBAI in Belfast. As a schoolboy he had seen his elder brother Harry play for Ireland in 1938 - Harry also toured with the Lions in South Africa in 1938 - 22 years later Des emulated his brother when he won the first of eight caps for Ireland. Six of those were in the front row and two in the second, where he partnered his lifelong friend Jimmy Nelson.

He was on the Ireland team that won the International Championship in 1951, when after Ireland had beaten France, England and Scotland, a 3-3 draw against Wales in Cardiff deprived Ireland of a Grand Slam and Triple Crown.