Scotland scrum-half Chris Cusiter has retired from professional rugby with immediate effect at 33.

He says it is the right time to end his playing career and that he will now build a retail business in Los Angeles which will focus on Scotch whisky.

"I have always been aware of the finite nature of a career in professional rugby, particularly given some of the injuries I picked up, and this is the right time to hang up my boots and move on to the next challenge. Now is the time for me to move forward, to something I have been working on alongside my rugby career," he says.

Cusiter, who won 70 Scotland caps from 2004, also toured with the British and Irish Lions in 2005.