Scotland wing Tim Visser retires from international rugby

Scotland wing Tim Visser has announced his retirement from international rugby after scoring 14 tries in 33 appearances.

The 30-year-old was born in the Netherlands, but began his Scotland career in 2012 after qualifying for his adopted country on residency grounds.

Visser said: "Six incredible years with Edinburgh has led me down to Harlequins and I feel now is the time to say goodbye to international rugby and concentrate on my club career.

"Playing for Scotland has been the biggest honour of my life. I feel it has been even more special by not being my country of birth but where I had grown to call home.

"Being asked to play for a top nation in world rugby and being accepted by my team-mates as one of their own has been incredible.

"However international rugby brings many challenges and, with a young family, the time away from home has been hard.

"I also feel that Scotland is in a fantastic place with some great young talent coming through and now is my time to free up the space for them to develop."

Visser was part of the Scotland squad that reached the quarter-finals of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where Australia controversially beat them by a point.

His final appearance for his adopted country came last summer in Scotland 27-22 defeat to Fiji.

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend added: "I'd like to pay tribute to Tim who made an excellent impact on Scotland and did very well at an international level for his adopted country.

"Obviously it's disappointing that we won't be able to call on his services for the next couple of seasons, but we have a number of players that are competing hard and have come through in that position over the past 12 months."

"We wish him all the best with his club career."