THE D'ARCY-O'DRISCOLL PARTNERSHIP:LEINSTER WERE in a bind, and so, by extension, were Ireland. Brian O'Driscoll had damaged his hamstring in Leinster's Heineken Cup defeat at home to Sale in the second weekend of January, leaving a gaping hole in Leinster's midfield for the match against the Sharks nine days later.

Take a bow Willie Anderson. It was the former Ireland captain and London Irish head coach who, as Leinster assistant/forwards coach, suggested to Gary Ella that he move Gordon D’Arcy from the wing and try him in midfield. To Ella’s credit, he went with Anderson’s suggestion and tried D’Arcy alongside Shane Horgan. Leinster won at Edgeley Park 23-16 and a star was born.

The gifted D’Arcy hadn’t been an overnight sensation. The one-time fullback star with Clongowes and Ireland Schools had been sounded out for the Irish tour to South Africa in 1998 by Warren Gatland but couldn’t go: he was doing his Leaving Cert.

Gatland fast-tracked him into the Ireland squad and he made his debut in the 1999 World Cup against Romania, coming on as a replacement at fullback for Conor O’Shea. But he lost his way, even becoming a peripheral figure at Leinster, until his career was revived by Matt Williams. Even so, it was a bit of a leftfield call to switch him to midfield.

At this point in his career, D’Arcy had won another four caps in replacement cameos in wins against Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Wales over the five years since his debut in 1999, but was overlooked for the 2003 World Cup.

However, by this stage Eddie O’Sullivan liked what he saw and paired him with Kevin Maggs in the opening 2004 Six Nations defeat in Paris. When O’Driscoll returned for the game at home to Wales a week later, though, it was still a surprise when O’Sullivan decided to play O’Driscoll and D’Arcy, and demote Maggs, who had been a regular for three and a half years, to the bench.

Almost immediately it clicked, to fairly devastating effect. Faced with two centres blessed with a low centre of gravity and wondrous footwork, it was as if opposing defences had never faced anything like it.

In truth, they provided much of the go-forward momentum for the ensuing three Triple Crowns. Quick, off-the-top lineout ball – often via Simon Easterby at the tail – was moved swiftly by Peter Stringer and Ronan O’Gara to the midfield gamebreakers, creating one-on-ones from which they looked to probe for chinks in the opposing defensive line, or at any rate get Ireland over the gain line.

O’Driscoll scored two tries in a rout of Wales and D’Arcy was outstanding in shredding the English midfield in a sensational, 19-13 win over the world champions at their Twickenham fortress. O’Driscoll was one of three try-scorers in a typically bruising battle with the Italians at home, before a Triple Crown coronation followed at Lansdowne Road a week later, when D’Arcy scored two of Ireland’s five tries.

However, such thoroughbreds with fast-twitch fibres are also prone to hamstring strains and tears, and when they weren’t in harness, Ireland weren’t the same. A hamstrung D’Arcy only appeared for a comeback which lasted 33 minutes in the win over Italy in the 2005 Six Nations, when Ireland’s campaign subsided with defeats at home to France and away to Wales.

It was no better the following autumn without O’Driscoll, when Ireland were routed by the All Blacks and Australia.

But the renewal of their partnership coincided with another Triple Crown in 2005, the highly competitive 2006 tour to New Zealand and Australia and another Triple Crown in ’07.

Admittedly, though O’Driscoll strained every sinew, the partnership and the team in general suffered at the 2007 World Cup, and they haven’t played together since D’Arcy broke his arm in the opening Six Nations win over a year ago in Croke Park.

Perhaps, to a degree, opposition teams had worked Ireland out, but it will be interesting to see if they can exploit the additional space at scrum time prompted by the ELVs.

And they are re-united today with O’Driscoll – the leading try-scorer in the championship – and D’Arcy, buoyed by trademark close-range tries against England and for Leinster last week, seemingly both in a rich vein of form.

2004

Feb 22nd: v Wales (Lansdowne Road). Won 36-15.

Mar 6th: v England (Twickenham). Won 19-13.

Mar 20th: v Italy (Lansdowne Road). Won 19-3.

Mar 27th: v Scotland (Lansdowne Road). Won 37-16.

Jun 12th: v South Africa (Bloemfontein). Lost 17-31.

2005

Feb 6th: v Italy (Stadio Flaminio). Won 28-17.

2006

Feb 4th: v Italy (Lansdowne Road). Won 26-16.

Feb 11th: v France (Stade de France). Lost 31-43.

Feb 26th: v Wales (Lansdowne Road). Won 31-5.

Mar 11th: v Scotland (Lansdowne Road). Won 15-9.

Mar 18th: v England (Twickenham). Won 28-24.

Jun 10th: v New Zealand (Hamilton). Lost 23-34.

Jun 17th: v New Zealand (Auckland). Lost 17-27.

Jun 24th: v Australia (Perth). Lost 15-37.

Nov 11th: v South Africa (Lansdowne Road). Won 32-15.

Nov 19th: v Australia (Lansdowne Road). Won 21-6.

Feb 4th: v Wales (Millennium Stadium). Won 19-9.

2007

Feb 24th: v England (Croke Park). Won 43-13.

Mar 10th: v Scotland (Murrayfield). Won 19-18.

Mar 17th: v Italy (Stadio Flaminio). Won 51-24.

Sep 9th: v Namibia (Bordeaux). Won 32-17.

Sep 15th: v Georgia (Bordeaux). Won 14-10.

Sep 21st: v France (Stade de France). Lost 3-25.

Sep 30th: v Argentina (Parc des Princes). Lost 15-30.

2008

Feb 2nd: v Italy (Croke Park). Won 16-11.