Ireland and Leinster flanker Keith Gleeson has announced that that he will retire from professional rugby at the end of the season.
 
The 31-year-old made his international debut in 2002 and won 27 Irish caps.

“I’ve enjoyed my time with Leinster and am honoured to have played for both my province and country,” he said.

“My decision is largely inspired by my desire to explore new avenues and opportunities and I feel now is the time to do that.”

He added: “I would like to take this opportunity to thank my coaches, all the support staff at Leinster, my friends and family for their support over the last seven years.”

Gleeson made his senior debut for Leinster in 2001 and since then has gone on to win 115 caps for his province.
 
In February 2002 he burst onto the international scene when he came on as a substitute in Ireland’s Six Nations game against Wales.

He became a consistent member of the Ireland team until the 2004 Six Nations when he broke his arm in the match against Italy.

This was followed by a serious leg injury during a training exercise in August of the same year.

Despite being a potentially career ending injury Gleeson made a full recovery and marked his return to the game with an appearance for his club, St. Mary’s College, late in the 2004/05 season.

He went on to reclaim his place in the Leinster senior team and make a further four appearances for his country.

Born in Ireland, Gleeson emigrated to Australia at the age of seven only to return in 2001 as a result of an invitation to play with Leinster.

While in Australia he played with the New South Wales Waratahs, Australian Barbarians, Australia U19 and Australia U21s.

Gleeson will return to Australia at the end of the year with his wife Fiona to work in the family business.

Leicester ended Leinster’s interest in this year’s Heineken Cup as they restored some pride with victory in a pulsating encounter at Welford Road.

After their own early exit last week, the Tigers raced into a 15-6 lead with tries from Brett Deacon and Seru Rabeni after an early exchange of penalties.

The hosts were reduced to 13 men with Julian White and Andy Goode sin-binned.

But they held out until half-time and despite Leinster’s best efforts, Ben Herring’s late try sealed victory.

The Irish province held the early advantage with two penalties from Contepomi to one from Goode.

But the hosts quickly started to dominate possession and territory and it wasn’t long before their control paid dividends.

A breathless passage of play featuring incisive contributions from Ayoola Erinle, a late replacement for Ollie Smith, and Rabeni finished with Brett Deacon crashing over in the left corner.

Two minutes later another lovely Tigers handling move brought a second try, this time the dangerous Rabeni profiting from a deft inside pass from South African lock Marco Wentzel.
Brian O’Driscoll tries to break through the Tigers’ defence
Goode converted for a 15-6 lead after 23 minutes, but Leicester then found themselves reduced to 13 men in the space of five minutes.

First former England prop Julian White, no stranger to the disciplinary chiefs throughout his career, took exception to Malcolm O’Kelly appearing on the wrong side of a ruck and unleashed a flurry of punches at the Ireland lock.

White could count himself fortunate to only receive a yellow card, and Goode swiftly joined him in the sin-bin for a high tackle on Brian O’Driscoll.

The referee spoke to both teams as the temperature reached boiling point, but Leicester survived the handicap and kept their line intact.

Contepomi missed a penalty on the resumption for the visitors but then found his range again to bring the visitors to within six points, before Goode pushed Leicester out to 18-9 with his second penalty.

Leinster missed a golden chance to bring themselves right back into it when Ollie le Roux’s pass eluded Jamie Heaslip when the Ireland hopeful had a clear run to the line up the left flank.

And it was Leicester who finished the match on top, flanker Herring applying the coup de grace after another onslaught on the visitors’ line.

Magners League leaders Leinster handed out a Boxing Day hammering to bottom-placed Ulster at the RDS.

Ulster’s latest awful display was capped by having Rory Best stretchered off with an apparent knee injury.

Three Felipe Contepomi penalties left the dominant home side 9-0 ahead at half-time and the Argentine added another penalty in the 50th minute.

Neil Best’s sin-binning was punished by Cian Healy’s try and Jamie Heaslip’s late try increased Ulster’s misery.

Leinster started minus Brian O’Driscoll, who was not risked because of an ongoing ankle problem, so Contepomi switched to centre with Jonathan Sexton starting at fly-half.

The home side dominated from the start and the Ulster line was threatened on a number of occasions before Contepomi kicked Leinster ahead with a ninth-minute penalty.

Leinster lost prop Ollie le Roux because of an apparent rib injury in the 15th minute but his replacement Healy went on to have a fine match.

Two more Contepomi penalties extended Leinster’s lead to 9-0 at the interval with the third score coming while Isaac Boss was in the sin-bin after an illegal challenge on Gordon D’Arcy.

Paddy Wallace was just short with a long-range penalty after half-time but Ulster then suffered another blow when Neil Best conceded a penalty in front of the posts and was sin-binned into the bargain.

Contepomi duly added the three points and Ulster’s woes were compounded when captain Best had to be stretchered off after appearing to land awkwardly.

Healy barged over for Leinster’s first try on 57 minutes with Contepomi adding the conversion.

Ulster caretaker coach Steve Williams then introduced David Humphreys but it was far too late to change the course of this game.

Another Contepomi penalty was followed by Heaslip’s try as Leinster stayed on top of the table.

Matt Williams is expected to be appointed as the new Ulster coach later this week and on the evidence of this match, he has quite a job on his hands.
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Leinster: G Dempsey, L Fitzgerald, G D’Arcy, F Contepomi, R Kearney, J Sexton, G Easterby; O le Roux, B Jackman, S Wright, L Cullen (capt), M O’Kelly, S Jennings, K Gleeson, J Heaslip.
Replacements: G Brown for Kearney (74), C Warner for Sexton (73), C Keane for Easterby (69), C Healy for le Roux (17), B Blaney for Jackman (78), C Jowitt for O’Kelly (73), S Keogh for Jennings (41).
Ulster: B Cunningham, T Bowe, A Trimble, P Steinmetz, S Danielli, P Wallace, I Boss; J Fitzpatrick, R Best (capt), D Fitzpatrick, J Harrison, R Caldwell, N Best, K Dawson, M McCullough.
Replacements: D Humphreys for Steinmetz (58), P Marshall for Boss (76), N Brady for R Best (55), B Young for D Fitzpatrick (51), C del Fava for Harrison (58), G Webb for Caldwell (71), D Pollock for Dawson (62).