THEY WILL say the forwards win games like these. But behind the grunt and big motor engines of the pack, the smaller players were doing their bit. Gordon D’Arcy has not been spoken about much these days. He doesn’t mind. When Paddy Wallace was chosen for the game with Australia and again against South Africa, a player of his stature may have felt deflated. Not D’Arcy.

His willingness to spark attacks, support O’Driscoll, get those fast feet moving like they were when he was chosen as RBS Six Nations Player of the Year in 2004 and 2007 were visible again when the unfortunate Wallace hobbled off injured.

D’Arcy rose to the challenge. One door closes another opens. For the Leinster centre, the attitude remains the same as ever, 43 caps and counting.

“Yeah it’s just unlucky for Paddy, he just seems to have a little bad run of injuries,” said D’Arcy. “You never like coming on for one of your mates in a situation like that but you just have to take it whenever you get it. It’s the same position for me and I just go in and do what I do best.”

Typically the inside centre was more comfortable talking up his team-mates than reflecting on his own contribution. But he made some moot points, especially about South Africa’s tactic of lofting high balls on top of man-of-the-match Rob Kearney.

“I think we put out a little bit more ball on the front foot. We probably wanted to play a little bit more rugby than they did,” adds D’Arcy. “I think they just wanted to sneak a 10-9 win or whatever it was, once they got that try that they thought they were in for it. But I think we just kept going at them and going at them. We played smart football. We played rugby down in their half.

“Sexton kept us down there, Squirrel – or Tomás – kept us on the front foot and Kearns (Kearney) from the back, taking all the balls and catching them on the run – his last take was a huge thing for us. He takes it and he fires it right back. He’s the human trampoline. You’ve got to question why a team’s game-plan is to hit balls to him.”

What South Africa might have expected to do was to win the collisions, snaffle ball they had no right to take and generally push Ireland around in the rucks and mauls. It won South Africa a World Cup just two years ago and there was no mystery to how they were going to face down the local boys in the last match of their tour. Ireland knew what they were getting, the force, the aggression, the power and the speed presented little surprise.

“Same old South Africa. They literally try to bully you off the field, but there was no way that was going to happen today,” says D’Arcy. “I think if there was any bullying to be done, then we were going to do it. I think we’re a team in this calendar year that has shown we are a physical team and we have a pack that can mix it with anyone in the world. We showed exactly what they (pack) can do again today and when it comes down to the nitty gritty, we can do it as strong as anyone else.”

Flanker Seán O’Brien was another who came into the game from the bench and like D’Arcy, seamlessly found his tempo. O’Brien has had some week. In against Fiji for his first cap and tossed into the action against the Boks as a blindside, rather than his usual openside, seemed almost like an additional challenge.

“Yeh, there is a difference there,” says the Leinster backrow. “Different roles to cover and I suppose you have to sit back and be a bit more of an organiser at six. But I’ve been in and out of there the whole week, the whole backrow, so I was comfortable enough going on at six.”

No anxiety at all? “No. None. What I liked was the speed at the break downs. Everything was very quick. You didn’t have as much time as you usually do to get in there or be as destructive. I liked that part of it. I learned in that game out there today. Just small things.”

D’Arcy is again pulling strings. O’Brien, prop Cian Healy and outhalf Jonathan Sexton are the new blood to add to Luke Fitzgerald, Kearney and Keith Earls. The feeling is there is more than just the World champions’ scalp to fuel the optimism.

“Exactly,” says O’Brien. “You look at the squad now and there are some great young fellas there . . . and more coming.”