Rugby:The Ireland squad has been instructed not to indulge in 'tweeting' in or around this weekend's Six Nations clash with Wales.

The players have 'agreed' not to use the social network site Twitter in the build-up to games, or in the 24 hours after the match.

This week it emerged players like Brian O’Driscoll, Jamie Heaslip and Cian Healy were the subject of criticism from fans on the website, while the captain caused a bit of a stir when he posted a message one fan sent, telling him he should retire from the game gracefully.

“The squad has agreed not to tweet around match time,” confirmed Irish 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."

Ireland face Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday, in what will be their fourth match of the tournament.