Veteran Mike Ross not yet ready to call time on Test career

Mike Ross will be 36 in December, but the Leinster tighthead has no intention of calling time on his Test career in the wake of Ireland’s devastating World Cup quarter-final defeat to Wales at the Millennium Stadium.

His emergence as a Test-capable tighthead back in 2009 was one of the most fortuitous events in modern Irish rugby given the shortage of candidates for the role at the time and the fact the remarkable John Hayes was then approaching the end of his career.

Ross has been perhaps the most crucial piece of the jigsaw this last five years, playing game after game when fellow starters were invariably offered breathers, and he has started six of Ireland’s RWC eight games this season between pre-season match and the tournament itself.