Category : Sport
Date : 31.03.2004
Printable version
Ireland centre
Gordon D'Arcy has capped a sensational season by ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Sport
website users voting him RBS Six Nations Player of the Championship.
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Following a five-star contribution to Ireland's first
Triple Crown since 1985, D'Arcy was the runaway winner of the poll,
run by the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Sport website.
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He collected half of the 12,000 votes, four times as
many as team-mate Paul O'Connell, who finished second.
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England wing Ben Cohen pipped Wales full-back
Gareth Thomas to third, with France flanker Serge Betsen
fifth.
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D'Arcy admitted he was surprised to receive the award,
despite his current form.
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"It was definitely not expected – kind of
a bolt from the blue," he told ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Sport's
website.
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"It's flattering to win this award by such a large
margin. What can I say? It's been a dream, this last couple of months.
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"Since Christmas, everything
seems to have gone right, so to win something like this is the icing
on the cake.
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"Having played for Ireland before and not really
made any impact, I know I have to work even harder now to stay where
I am. I won't be drifting off into obscurity this time."
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The centre insisted he would not be distracted by talk
of him making next year's Lions tour to New Zealand.
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"The challenge for me now is to make sure the next
time I play an international I stay at the standard I've set,"
he said.
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"Six months is a huge amount of time in rugby.
Six months ago I didn't make the World Cup squad, so I wouldn't be so
naïve to look that far into the future about the Lions. But fingers
crossed."
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RBS/ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Player Poll results
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1 Gordon D'Arcy (Ireland) 50%
2 Paul O'Connell (Ireland) 13%
3 Ben Cohen (England) 9%
4 Gareth Thomas (Wales) 8%
5 Serge Betsen (France) 6%
