Ageism is perhaps more prevalent in sport than any other way of life. Field athletes, for the most part, are viewed suspiciously when they enter their mid-30s, a kind of dotage in career terms. A dip in form then is taken as a terminal decline, a no-brakes descent towards retirement.
When players lose form in their 20s it’s generally peddled as a temporary setback; after all class is permanent but woe betide anyone of a certain vintage who can’t consistently broach the standards of a previous incarnation as a player, no matter how high that particular bar.
Gordon D'Arcy, who turned 35 in February, is no longer first choice inside centre for Leinster and Ireland. A lavish contributor to arguably the best centre partnership ever to play for Ireland, he watched Brian O'Driscoll, a year older, retire last summer. D'Arcy chose to stay on. He loved playing, still does.
He hasn’t given up the hope of reclaiming lost ground. In some respects his rugby career has returned to its infancy. His past achievements hold less currency in terms of selection, or are conversely employed as a measuring tool. He must now prove his primacy every time he plays. These are his words: “It is like being a young lad again. You’ve got to play your best game and then leave it up to the coaches after that.”
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On Sunday he's likely to be part of a Leinster team hoping to clamber back into the Guinness Pro12 playoff race with a victory over Newport Gwent Dragons at Rodney Parade. He wants to play against Toulon the following week in the Champions Cup semi-final in Marseilles. His application to do so comes in the form of his performance in Wales.
“Listen, you do your job as best you can. You try to make the players around you look good, play well for the other players, put the ball in the right hands in the right places.
“You have to rely that the guys who are grading you and picking the team see all the bits and pieces you do that someone on TV might not look at; see you are in the right places, doing your job, working hard for the team.
“If you do all those things, you put yourself into it [consideration] and then you’ve just got to put it down to selection. Once you can step off the pitch, look yourself in the mirror, in the eye [and say], ‘I did everything I could.’ You get picked – great. You don’t get picked. What can you do?
“You’ve just got to be playing. You get on the pitch, even if it’s off the bench, if that’s my role, that’s my role. I will do whatever is best for Leinster to try and win silverware. If that has to be what it is for now and it leads into something great in the autumn, that’s fantastic.
“All I can worry about is the next game. That’s all I can control. If I play my best game there, and that gets me into the team, great. If I play my best game and it doesn’t get me into the team, I’ve done all I can.
Great relationship
“At least, I’m making him [the coach] have a think about it. That’s all you can ever expect. If he’s honest with you and you’re happy with the chain of communication with the coach – I have a great relationship with all the coaching staff – it’s good.”
Ireland coach Joe Schmidt and Leinster's Matt O'Connor offer similar advice, D'Arcy admitted.
“It’s very much the same conversation. It is ‘get a run of games.’ I am a competitive person. I enjoy the drive. I am not ready to finish. I still enjoy it. I was doing fitness today with 20-year-olds. I’m still keeping up with them, going ahead on one or two runs.”
He won’t go quietly, nor should that be the case.
