Ireland centre Gordon D’Arcy has been given a handful of games to prove he is worth being given a World Cup swansong after announcing he will retire at the end of this autumn’s tournament in England.

It’s no secret that my Ireland career didn’t end the way I would have liked, and if this week is the end for Gordon D’Arcy, it’s certainly not how he would have wanted to finish up either.

Gordon D’Arcy’s Ireland career appears at an end after the 81-cap Test veteran was excluded from Joe Schmidt’s squad for the remaining rounds of the Six Nations.

The international contingent get all the breaks. With Joe Schmidt hosting a pre-Christmas camp in Carton House early in the week, the onus fell on the supporting cast in the provinces with Gordon D’Arcy the only player who started in Ireland’s last outing against Australia asked to play in the festive derbies in Limerick and Belfast yesterday.

Irish rugby star Gordon D’Arcy has revealed his wife, model Aoife Cogan, turned him down the first time he asked her out.