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10th March 2015
02:08pm GMT

Having tussled for the starting hooker position with Jerry Flannery for six years, Best knows all about setbacks and time on the outside, looking in.
D'Arcy has been on the Test scene every since 1998, when then-Ireland coach Warren Gatland wanted him to tour South Africa days after his Leaving Cert. Ultimately, he did not tour, but his Ireland debut came a year later when, as a 19-year-old, he featured in the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
Back then, he was seen as a winger and someone that could fill in at outside centre. He found himself dropped for the early years of Eddie O'Sullivan's Irish reign but returned in stunning style, in 2004, as replacement for the injured Brian O'Driscoll. The Leinster duo finished that year's championship in midfield tandem. D'Arcy won player of the tournament. It was the beginning of an epic Test partnership.
He returned for the 2009 Six Nations and scored a try, off the bench, in the kick-starter win over France. The reactions and celebrations of his teammates, after that try, showed how well regarded he was in that Grand Slam-winning squad.I had my own moments of doubt about D'Arcy in recent years but will never forget his awesome defensive display against the All Blacks, in the agonising Christchurch loss, in 2012. He had been dropped, for Keith Earls, ahead of the First Test at Eden Park. Declan Kidney was experimenting with O'Driscoll at 12 (but in the 13 jersey) and Earls outside him. Ireland were filleted by New Zealand and Earls found himself out of favour. D'Arcy came back in, with no grumbles or issues, and did a great job, at Rugby League Patrk, of neutralising Conrad Smith and Sonny Bill Williams. My respect for him soared after that game. The legs may be going, a last Test try was against Argentina in 2010, O'Driscoll is no longer around and Henshaw is in flying form. Still, it does not feel like the end for D'Arcy. Not quite yet.
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