Centurion Best eyes Aussie scalp

Ireland captain Rory Best says reaching a century of caps may be the pinnacle of his rugby career but admits that he is more focused on beating Australia tomorrow than anything else.

The Ulsterman will become Ireland's fifth centurion after Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell, Ronan O'Gara and John Hayes when he leads his country out to face the Wallabies at the Aviva Stadium.

"With the way the Aussies have been going, especially the last three games of their Northern Hempishere tour, they've shown that they're a real quality outfit,” he said.

"For us to finish a very tough autumn with three wins out of four would be a big boost, to back up the win against New Zealand. There was a lot of the performance last week we were happy with but ultimately we're in the business of winning games.

"We want to go out tomorrow and perform. Whoever steps in, we expect them to step in seamlessly and perform. That's how you grow a squad, grow competition and get results."

On the subject of reaching a century of caps, Best added: "I think it's probably safe enough to say I didn't ever anticipate this.

"When you get your first cap for Ireland it's like a dream come true and all you want to do is get the next one. After that every time you get picked you feel unbelievably lucky.

"Then you tick quite close to 50 and you think 'imagine getting to 50'. But now to be on the verge of 100 caps, it's quite difficult to believe.

"I think it will probably be more important whenever I eventually do retire, which will hopefully be a while, and you sit back and look at everything you've achieved.

"But when I do look back this will rank up there as one of, if not the best, achievements I've had in the game.

"What these milestones do is show how the amount of support that is out there, not just for me but for the whole Irish team.

"The amount of support we got after the Chicago game and now the last 24 hours since the squad the amount of well wishes we've got brings it home to you."

"I feel I'm playing well. There's a lot made of turning 30, everyone then says you're done. But for me age is just a number.

"When you've never been overly fast and you lose a little bit of pace as you get older, hopefully it doesn't matter. Hopefully, you make it up in your head.

"I don't see that I'm playing any worse than I ever did, so I feel fit, happy with my game and the big thing for me is I'm really enjoying it at the minute."

Photo: INPHO/Tommy Dickson

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