Talent, durability and hunger keep magical double act ticking

They weren’t always the double act we know them as now.

Brian O’Driscoll was still 11 months away from making his Leinster debut when winger Gordon D’Arcy celebrated his senior bow in blue with a Heineken Cup try against Llanelli at Stradey Park in September 1998.

And when D’Arcy walked out in front of 79,547 people at the Stade de France to make his full Ireland debut in March of 2004 it was Kevin Maggs who stood at his side in the visitors’ midfield.