Supporters of two Irish rugby internationals acquitted of rape have taken out a full-page newspaper advertisement demanding their playing suspensions be lifted.

Paddy Jackson and his Ulster clubmate Stuart Olding were cleared last month in a high profile trial in Belfast. Their two friends, Blane McIlroy and Rory Harrison, were found not guilty of indecent exposure and perverting the course of justice.

The ad in Wednesday’s Belfast Telegraph states: “As Ulster and Irish rugby fans we want these innocent men reinstated and rightly allowed to resume their roles for both club and country. The IRFU [Irish Rugby Football Union] should take note of the silent majority and not bow to the court of social media.”

Online support grows for women after rugby stars' rape acquittal Read more

Their backing for Jackson and Olding, who are currently suspended from all Ulster and Ireland duties, comes ahead of a planned protest outside the Kingspan stadium in Belfast on Friday.

Campaigners are planning to hold a demonstration at the home of Ulster Rugby before the province’s clash with the Welsh side Ospreys. They want Ulster and Ireland to ban the pair from playing for both sides.

Supporters of the 21-year-old woman who was at the centre of the case against Jackson, Olding, McIlroy and Harrison also took out an ad in the Belfast Telegraph last week. The four men were unanimously cleared of all charges by a jury at Belfast crown court, but the ad referred to evidence heard in court of WhatsApp messages in which the men used lewd language to describe a sexual encounter at the centre of the allegations made by the woman.

Organised by a rugby fan, Anna Nolan from Belfast, the ad last week said the players’ behaviour “falls far beneath the standards that your organisations represent and as such we demand that neither of these men represents Ulster or Ireland now or at any point in the future”.

Supporters of Jackson and Oldding said that both men had apologised for the content of messages. “What is reprehensible is the extent of the social media backlash aimed at incriminating men unanimously acquitted of any crime,” they said. “We are fed up with this cyber persecution.”

The advertisement on Wednesday, printed in red ink on a white background, is signed: “Real fans standing up for the Ulster men.”

Later on Wednesday, the judge in the trial, Justice Patricia Smyth, will consider challenges to a number of reporting restrictions regarding the case that are still in operation.

She will consider a legal appeal from a number of media organisations in Northern Ireland to have the restrictions, which were imposed during proceedings, lifted.

On the future rugby careers of Jackson and Olding, the IRFU has said: “A review process in relation to this matter is under way and it would be inappropriate to comment on any matter pertaining to that process until it is completed.”