Peter O'Mahony: The old dog for the hard yards reaches 100 Ireland caps

He's not the first Ireland player to hit the 100 mark but somehow Peter O’Mahony’s hard yards feel harder won than most.

His body of work, both with clubs and country, seems to be made up of hit after hit, collision after collision. Backward steps, there have been few.

The Corkman’s natural instinct, from which he has never detoured, is to meet fire with fire and that he, when he steps out against Scotland this evening, has reached 100 Ireland caps is simply an incredible achievement.

There is a list of Ireland players who shared O’Mahony’s disregard for their own bodies when it came to the rough stuff but never made the ton.

That he has done so says much about the man and the player that Andy Farrell has at his disposal.

The Munster skipper, who made his debut aged 22 as a replacement for Sean O’Brien against Italy in 2012, joins Paul O'Connell, John Hayes, Cian Healy, Rory Best, Brian O'Driscoll, Ronan O'Gara, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray and Keith Earls in the exclusive club.

Tributes have been pouring in all week from his team-mates, former players, coaches and fans as O’Mahony steps up to the crease on 99.

They all sing the same refrain: warrior, battle-hardened, a driver of standards, relentless, uncompromising. It’s the persona that the public gets to see on a weekly basis.

His nickname is 'The Haggard Badger', we learned from Iain Henderson.

The 34-year-old can come across gruff in interviews but, as Sexton alluded to on Thursday, we don’t know the man.

"Peter has been a great friend of mine over the last 10, 11, 12 years," he said.

"He’s a consistent big-game player. He’s very different to some of the other leaders.

"You don’t get to see the real Peter O’Mahony, he gives very little away in public. But he’s the life and soul