RUGBY:THE IRELAND rugby players have been instructed not to post messages on social media sites like Twitter before tomorrow's Six Nations showdown with Wales, writes John Harrington.

They’ve also been told they can’t engage with their online “followers” in the 24 hours after the match either. The decision comes after a number of players, including Jamie Heaslip and Cian Healy, had testy exchanges on Twitter with critical Irish fans after the narrow victory over Scotland.

Brian O’Driscoll caused a bit of a stir too when he posted a message one fan had sent him telling him he should retire from the game gracefully, but now all such exchanges have been banned.

“The squad has agreed not to tweet around match time,” confirmed team manager Paul McNaughton yesterday. “We haven’t banned tweeting generally, but around match time the squad have agreed to extend the period of time when there will be no tweeting.

“We don’t see it as a big issue, but there was a lot made of some of the correspondence between some of the players and some of their followers.

“We are developing the policy anyway because it will have to be a fairly rigid one in terms of the World Cup. Not so much in what they say to fans but in terms of commercial arrangements.”