The Leinster pair were pitched together in Ireland's midfield for the first time at Lansdowne Road and proved to be a perfect combination as their team ran out 35-17 victors over lacklustre Wales.

O'Driscoll kept his number 13 shirt but was moved to an unaccustomed inside centre role to accommodate D'Arcy, who plays his provincial rugby on the wing.

With their forwards well on top, the pair took maximum advantage, ripping holes in the Welsh defence at will.

And while O'Driscoll's brace ensured he took the try-scoring glory, it won't have gone unnoticed by coach Eddie O'Sullivan that the visitors dragged themselves back into the game once D'Arcy had left the field with a severely bruised back.

O'Sullivan is confident the 24-year-old Wexford-born player will be fit for the visit to Twickenham in a fortnight, which is good news for O'Driscoll and bad for the world champions.

"It was very enjoyable playing alongside Gordon," said O'Driscoll, who has now scored a remarkable 23 tries in 47 appearances for his country.

"There was a lot of fuss made about the fact we had never previously trained together in the centres but in reality all we did was move our combination in by one place in the team.

"We are similar players and sometimes it can be difficult to read what each of us is going to do.

"But if it's hard for us it must be even worse for the opposition."

Though Kevin Maggs performed competently as he won his 60th cap as D'Arcy's replacement, the odds are on O'Sullivan keeping the combination, although the Irish camp will know forward dominance will be much harder to achieve against Woodward's formidable pack.

The home side strangled Wales at every set piece and took just 58 seconds to get on the scoresheet as hooker Shane Byrne peeled off a rolling maul.

Byrne repeated the feat seconds before the interval, by which time O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara had crossed.

And, despite playing into a biting wind after half-time, Anthony Foley and O'Driscoll added more touchdowns to take the game completely out of Wales' reach.

Given the visitors' chances had been hyped up before the game, the scoreline was a surprise, even if O'Driscoll claimed it had not been as easy as a capacity crowd might have thought.

"The forwards built us a platform and they have to take some credit for that," he said.

"Maybe Wales weren't as strong as we expected but we had some great angles of running.

"We put together some good phases, the forwards dominated and our rolling mauls were particularly good. We did it a lot more often than we usually do because it was proving to be so effective.

"In the build-up to the game we pinpointed the Welsh back three as their dangermen and we managed to close down all their space.

"When they did move it wide, we kept our line, which is something else we had been working on. It is good when things like that come to fruition."

Donnacha O'Callaghan's knee ligament injury took some of the gloss off the victory.

However, while the Munster lock is unlikely to be fit to face England, he should be available for the remaining two games against Italy and Scotland.