With Joe Schmidt's side bracing themselves for their clash with France this Sunday, Gordon D'Arcy joined Joe in studio for tonight's Off The Ball to reflect on his career, Ireland's World Cup campaign and how he grew into the player he is today.
D'Arcy featured in what is regarded as Clongowes' greatest ever team as they powered to the Leinster Schools Senior Cup.
With the help of some eye catching performances he gained notoriety in the amongst coaches in Ireland and went straight from his Leaving Cert into a professional contract with Leinster.
His own feeling though, was that he had been coasting on the talent that he had and hadn't matured enough to earn him a long term contract, a sentiment that Matt Williams had picked p on.
"Matty said: 'Listen, I just want to meet you for breakfast', and I was giving out about a contract , I wanted this and that" he said.
"That's not to say I was cocky, I just wanted to become the finished article tomorrow and I didn't know how to go about it. I assumed it meant getting a long term contract and you'd have the security to go on and improve.
"The eagerness and the want to do well was always there."
Meeting Williams for breakfast, however, proved to be a turning point in his career.
"Matty just told me: 'We're not going to offer you a new contract' and it felt like I was sitting there for six hours, it was probably only about ten seconds.
"I was stunned, I didn't know what was going to happen to me. He told me he'd give me four weeks to save my contract.
"To be fair to them, they offered me a good contract at the end of those four weeks, but that was a watershed moment for me. I had had a long chat with my Dad and I just felt like it was time for me to grow up."
You can listen to the full feature length interview below.
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