'It means the world to me' - 50 up for Dave Kilcoyne

Dave Kilcoyne doesn't hide his pride and joy in reaching 50 international caps for Ireland.

The Munster prop made his debut in 2012 against South Africa and was part of the squad that recorded a convincing win over France on Saturday last.

"It means the world to me to be honest," said the 34-year-old, who had to overcome a serious neck issue last year.

"You grow up with the old cliché that everyone wants to play for Ireland.

"All my family were there in the audience and it really does mean the world to me.

"Faz [Andy Farrell] put on a little presentation for me, Ports [Andrew Porter] and James Ryan during the week and you know they just talked about how special it is to get 50 caps.

"I think Pete [O'Mahony] was telling me during the week he heard only 6% of players who get capped for Ireland end up going on to get 50 caps.

"They called out a list of maybe 10 props that have actually ever done it over time.

"So, it’s a hard thing to do. I had a bad setback with my neck in last year’s Six Nations.

"A scrum went down at the end of the game and I lost all the power down to one side of my arm.

"It just set me back a while….eventually I had to get an operation. Obviously for a prop getting two discs shaved in your neck is not ideal so it was unnerving at times.

"I suppose I’m proud of myself and the resilience I showed to get back and get back in the squad but I did have that inner belief that once I got the power back that I would get back in.

"I always back myself and to get 50 caps, it really does mean a lot to me. It means more to me probably than my first cap just because of what I’ve had to go through in the last year."

The Limerick man also praised his friend Conor Murray, who lined out at scrum-half despite having to deal with his