The Irish Independent's Vincent Hogan pays tribute to the peerless Brian O'Driscoll, who will make his 100th Test appearance for Ireland on Saturday.
"HIS first cap. He has forgotten many things, but not Ben Tune and how the world seemed to grow small around the big Wallaby that day in Brisbane.
"Brian O'Driscoll had gone to Australia fixated on Tim Horan, the best centre in the world and a guy he would, 11 years later, nominate as the greatest player he ever faced. But Horan all but fluttered compared to his team-mates in '99.
"Maybe he just got sucked into the worry of the day. Now, he can let an occasion float over him like familiar music, but O'Driscoll was 20 that evening in Ballymore; a tough, game kid who had yet to even play for his province.
"And part of him wondered if he might be about to snap like a brittle branch in a gale."
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