D’Arcy: I didn’t pull out of 2005 Test

AS The &Lions’ latest arrival, Gordon D’Arcy, sat poolside at the team’s base in Bloemfontein yesterday, he cut a tired yet contented figure.

The Ireland centre had been on holiday in the US with friends when he got the call that his services were required in South Africa due to the tourists’ midfield injury worries. An arduous trip ensued, at the end of which he was then told he would be on the bench for today’s clash with The Cheetahs.

Unsurprising, then, that D’Arcy, less than 24 hours after his belated arrival, was reluctant to be drawn on the controversy surrounding his involvement in the Lions Tour of New Zealand in 2005, during which the then head coach Clive Woodward allegedly suggested to the press that the player had ruled himself out of the final Test against the All Blacks because of tiredness.