Bulldozers.

As far as centres go, Gordon D’Arcy is one that will always be fondly remembered by Irish fans as one of the very best to wear a green jersey in midfield.

D’Arcy, who will be inducted into the Rugby Players Ireland Hall of Fame this weekend, played 83 times for Ireland in a hugely successful career that saw him win three European Cups as well as two Six Nations championships among other things.

He formed one of the best centre partnerships in the history alongside Brian O’Driscoll and was sorely missed when he hung up his boots back in 2015.

Having played at the highest level for so many years, D’Arcy came up against some of the best centres the game has seen. But who were the two toughest?

We asked him and he didn’t even have to think for a second.

“That’s very easy,” D’Arcy told us.

“There’s two of them.

“Yannick Jauzion from France and Ma’a Nonu [New Zealand]. Two absolute bulldozers.

“Jauzion was just incredible and was so hard to stop, with his offloading ability. France built so much off and around him. 6-foot-4 and probably 17-stone.

“And then you have Ma’a Nonu. Same height as me [5-foot-11] and still 16-stone. Probably the most complete centre in the modern game.”

You can catch the full interview with Gordon D’Arcy on this week’s episode of the Up and Under Podcast.

Rugby Players Ireland this week announced that Gordon D’Arcy will join a host of iconic Irish rugby heroes in the Rugby Players Ireland Hall of Fame. D’Arcy joins former teammates from the 2009 Grand Slam winning campaign such as John Hayes (2012), David Wallace (2015) and Ronan O’Gara (2016), while his longstanding centre partner Brian O’Driscoll (2018) also counts amongst an illustrious list. D’Arcy’s magnificent career will be celebrated at the Zurich Irish Rugby Players Rugby Awards which will be broadcast on Virgin Media Two at 7:30pm this Saturday.