TNT Sports
D'Arcy relishes challenge
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Published 01/04/2006 at 13:01 GMT+1
Centre Gordon D'Arcy will celebrate his 100th cap for Leinster when his team face holders Toulouse in the European Cup's quarter-finals. It will be the first time in nine weeks that D'Arcy and Ireland team-mates Brian O'Driscoll, Shane Horgan and Girvan D
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They all were part of their country's triple-crown winning effort in the Six Nations that culminated with a 28-24 win over England at Twickenham.
Despite travelling to Toulouse as underdogs, D'Arcy relishes the challenge.
"Games like these are the reason why you play rugby. You want to measure yourself against as high a calibre of opposition as you possibly can," the Irish international told the European Cup's official website.
Seven years after his debut in the same competition against Edinburgh, D'Arcy will become only the seventh player to achieve the 100-cap landmark.
D'Arcy still believes his side can achieve the unthinkable against the reigning European champions.
"We know that anything can happen in sport. Look at what Arsenal have achieved recently when you consider how they were written off against the so-called &lsquoGalacticos' of Real Madrid, D'Arcy explained.
"They believed in themselves and beat them and again proved their doubters wrong against Juventus earlier this week. That's something we can take heart from," he added.
MASSIVE SUPPORT
To help them in their bid, Leinster will be able to count on more than 5,000 travelling supporters who will make the trip to Toulouse.
"That level of support is something that they (Toulouse) won't be used to in their own ground and it will definitely give us an extra lift," said the 26-year old.
For Toulouse, however, the extra lift will come from the return of their inspirational centre Yannick Jauzion, who missed France's entire Six Nations campaign with a toe injury but made a try-scoring return to club action in last weekend's 19-7 win over Agen.
"It's going to be a really tough game," warns Jauzion.
"Leinster have several players who are really hard to defend against - obviously that includes the likes of Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy, but also Felipe Contepomi who has had a fantastic Heineken Cup so far and is a really dangerous player," he added.
Follow all the European Cup's quarter-finals live on eurosport.com/co.uk Saturday at 13:30cet (12:30pm UK time) !!!
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