Willie Duggan's greatness as a Number 8 is beyond question for those who watched him compete for Ireland at the back of the scrum.
He is widely regarded as one of the greatest to play the position, despite representing an Ireland team operating in an age of Welsh brilliance, punctuated by French and English dominance.
Ireland were also-rans in a Five Nations brimming with wonderful teams - that a succession of Ireland teams back-boned by the likes of Duggan, Moss Keane, Donal Lenihan, Tom Grace, Hugo MacNeill, Fergus Slattery and Trevor Ringland could manage a single Championship, in 1982, speaks volumes for the quality of Northern Hemisphere rugby when Duggan was in his pomp.
Duggan, who has passed away at the age of 67, also represented Blackrock College and Leinster - but it was his time in the green of Ireland and red of the British and Irish Lions, in 1977, that made him a legend.
Zinzan Brooke, Mervyn Davies, Sergio Parisse, Lawrence Dallaglio - this is the calibre of Number 8 Duggan will mix with in the pantheons.
Strong, uncompromising and brave - where Duggan had the likes of Brooke and Parisse licked was his off-field personality, which will go down in legend.
In fact some of the stories already told about him have a mythical quality about them - as the man himself told Tom English.
"Fergus Slattery tells a story about me. We were playing France and there was a reception the day before the match and somebody stood up and made a speech and finished by saying, 'May the best team win tomorrow,' and I'm supposed to have said, 'I hope to f**k they don't.'
"That's fictional. I might have thought it, but I'm sure I didn't say it."
No fan of training, Duggan once emerged from the tunnel in Twickeneham, ahead of a 1982 Five Nations match, and handed a lit cigarette to referee Allan Hosie and said, "Hold that for me".
One Irish coach asked him to quit the cigarettes, arguing he would run faster if he did. Duggan (far right, above) shot back immediately: "No. Because I'd be offside all the time if I stopped instead of just some of the time."
As witty as they came, Duggan always maintained he did not make history in 1977. Himself and Geoff Wheel had the dubious honour of being the first men sent off in a Five Nations match.
Scottish referee Norman Samson sent both men for an early bath following some fisticuffs at a lineout during the encounter at Cardiff Arms Park.
However, as the late, Moss Keane recalled, Duggan always insisted Samson simply asked him to vacate the playing area.
"Duggan always maintained he was never sent off," said Keane. "He said to me the referee came towards him and said would he mind leaving the field?
"And Duggan says, 'Sure not at all. I was b******d anyway'."
