Darren Yapp has become the latest long-serving Connacht player to announce that he will bring the curtain down on his professional rugby career at the end of the season.

IN FULL FLOW . . . Connacht's Darren Yapp, seen here on his way to score the first of his hat-trick of tries in the Celtic Cup semi-final against Edinburgh at the Sportsground in 2003, who will be retiring at the end of the season after eight years with Connacht. Photo: Matt Browne/SPORTSFILE

The centre/winger follows in the footsteps of Matt Mostyn in deciding to retire at the end of the current campaign.

"I've been very fortunate to have had played eleven years of professional rugby and to have been involved with Connacht for eight of those.

"It has been a fantastic place to work and it's been great to be a part of professional rugby during a time when the sport has grown to a point where its profile has reached such great heights, however I feel like it's the right time to retire," said Yapp who has played 129 times for Connacht, captaining the side on five occasions.

He was brought into the Connacht squad in late 2000 by Steph Nel and made his first start against Neath.

Yapp says that making it to the semi final of the European Challenge Cup against Harlequins in 2004 was one of the highlights of his career.

"It was very disappointing to lose out on the final by four points but we were playing some very exciting rugby that season and it was a great time to be involved with Connacht.

"I also hit a rich vein of form during that period and I think I scored nine tries that season which led to me being called up to the Irish squad to train.

"Another highlight was scoring a hattrick against Edinburgh in the semi final of the Celtic Cup at the Sportsground, but something I'll always remember is that I got the final pass for all three tries from Eric Elwood," says Yapp.

He will step down at the end of the season but hopes to stay involved in the game. "I'd love to stay involved with a team. I'm not looking at coaching rugby at the moment but it's something I would be interested in further down the line.

"Over the last year and a half I've been doing a diploma in Health and Physiology which I'll be finishing soon but I'd love to stay involved with rugby to some degree. Further to this course I'll be looking to get into sports therapy and massage and am looking forward to still being involved with sport and hopefully that'll be in Galway," says Yapp.

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