Ireland One Two in PLayer of the Championship.

Ireland centre Gordon D’Arcy has capped a
sensational season by being voted RBS Six Nations Player of the
Championship. D’Arcy was the runaway winner of the poll run by the BBC Sport
website.

He collected half of the 12,000 votes, four times as many as
team-mate Paul
O’Connell, who finished second to complete a great season in
Ireland’s first
Triple Crown since 1985.

England wing Ben Cohen pipped Wales full-back Gareth Thomas for
third, with
France flanker Serge Betsen fifth.

D’Arcy admitted he was surprised to receive the award.
“It was definitely not expected – kind of a bolt from the
blue,” he told
BBC Sport.
“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.

“Since Christmas everything seems to have gone right, so to
win something
like this is the icing on the cake.

“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.”

D’Arcy dropped out of the Ireland set-up after making his debut as
a
teenager in 1999. But he got back on the straight and narrow and won a
recall in
January when captain Brian O’Driscoll was injured.
And when O’Driscoll returned there was no way Ireland coach Eddie
O’Sullivan could drop him. Instead he displaced long-serving Kevin
Maggs.

AFP – 2004