Ulster Rugby CEO says Jackson and Olding will never play for club or country again

The chief executive of Ulster Rugby, Shane Logan, says he does not envisage Paddy Jackson or Stuart Olding playing for Ulster again.

It was announced on Saturday morning that both Olding and Jackson were having their contrats revoked by the IRFU and Ulster Rugby.

Logan had been criticised for an apparent lack of visibility during the issue and was speaking for the first time in public on the matter.

The CEO was quizzed during a BBC Northern Ireland interview this evening which he said the pair had "made a very serious mistake".

"I hope that they will learn from that and I hope they fulfil their potential going forward."

"No sponsor including Bank of Ireland drove the decision," he claimed. "We have taken on board everybody's views right across society, right across our supporter group, our sponsor group, our players, clubs, volunteers, we are part of society.

"But at the end of the day, having looked at all those things, the decision was based on alignment with what it is we stand for in particular the value of respect."

"The players themselves admitted in their own statements that they were way short of what was expected of them."

Asked whether he could see them playing for Ulster and Ireland in the future and Logan said: "That is not something that is being envisaged."

"The position is joint. It's a joint Irish and Ulster rugby position...The statement is clear and it is not something that we are contemplating."

Former Ulster and Ireland rugby player and RugbyPass columnist Neil Best tweeted in response to a video of the interview, saying: "Occupy yourself in beholding and bewailing your own imperfections rather than contemplating the imperfections of others."

On the weekend Best was criticial of Logan and Ulster's sacking of the pair, describing Logan as a CEO "who has an unerring knack of not making himself available at times of crisis."

Following the trial Jackson said he is “ashamed” for the distress caused to a women he met at a party in 2016, which led to a trial for rape.