Alan Good
Brian O'Driscoll will this weekend become the latest player to join rugby's most exclusive club when he leads Ireland out against Wales this Saturday, winning his 100th cap for his country.
Donal Lenihan's glowing tribute to the Leinster centre accurately sums up why O'Driscoll is laregly considered the most influential player ever to wear green.
But what of rugby's other 12 centurions? Can we say with any certainty that one was a cut above the above the rest?
For a start, the list surprisingly doesn't include any All Blacks. You could either take that as a testament to the constant production line of quality players in the Land of the Long White Cloud, or a symbol of how many New Zealanders sacrifice some years of their international careers to get more bang for their buck in Europe.
While it is easy to generally assume that longevity equals greatness, it is quite a stretch to claim Italy's Alessandro Troncon, capped 101 times in 13 years, as one of the greatest scrum-halves of all time.
In fact, in this part of the world, he is remembered more for picking a fight, school-bully style, with Peter Stringer than for any of his on-field accomplishments.
Scotland's Chris Paterson is another who, his metronomic goal-kicking apart, would hardly make a world XV today, let alone of all time.
The rest of the list is a combination of workhorses lauded for their unseen work - Fabien Pelous, John Hayes, Jason Leonard - while two of the list, Australia's George Gregan and Stephen Larkham, owed much of their success to each other, having played 79 times together at half-back for the Wallabies.
French wizard Philippe Sella and twinkle-toed (if mistake-prone) Wallaby David Campese are the throwbacks to the amateur era, which is notoriously difficult to compare to the modern, professional game.
Nonetheless, those two deserve serious kudos for breaking the 100-cap barrier when there wasn't the same proliferation of Test matches as there is today.
Best of the rest? Take your pick from Wales' Gareth Thomas, South African points machine Percy Montgomery and Australian openside tormentor George Smith.
Picking a winner depends on whether it's spellbinding side-steps, lineout majesty or all-round consistency that floats your boat; for me, Sella, Gregan and O'Driscoll would be the trio on the podium, with the latter just about edging it.
What do you think? Leave a comment and tell us who you think rugby's best-ever centurion is, and why!
