Gerry Thornley talks to Peter Clohessy about his inspirational career as the Irish forward wins his 50th international cap against Wales

Fittingly, the 50-cap veteran and the first cap wonder from Young Munster, Paul O'Connell, are sharing what seems like a penthouse suite in the Glenview Hotel. This merely makes for a grander mess, and amid the unopened lunchtime tuna rolls, strewn clothes and innumerable drink containers lie a couple of rented videos. Appropriately, perhaps, one is entitled The Last of the Titans.

And maybe it is about time that Peter Clohessy was viewed as a giant of modern Irish forward play, or as the Daily Telegraph put it during the week, "it is way over time, in fact, to acclaim one of Ireland's greatest props".

It would have been long thus if left to his peers, for the respect and near reverence in which he is held in the various dressing-rooms he has inhabited is palpable. Mick Galwey says simply "he would be the first man on my team", while Keith Wood says it angers him the way that previous misdemeanours have coloured the perception of the Claw.

"In the modern era he has been a model professional, but the label still sticks."

Wood points out that Clohessy came from an era where the law was more that of the jungle, with poorer refereeing, without recourse to videos.

The absent Irish captain has always likened Clohessy to Roy Keane for his burning will to win, and it is this "fierce competitiveness and fierce team ethic" which Brian O'Brien highlights as one of Clohessy's defining characteristics.

"The game is like petrol to him," adds the Irish manager. "And when he's not involved in the game he's like a car without petrol, but once he becomes involved in the game and the people within the game, he just vaporises that fuel."

An essentially private man, who generally says more when taunting opponents than he would to the media, once you do get through the initial suspicious nature (and it can take a while) you'll find few more loyal people.

"He has an infectiousness about him, and a generosity which is not widely known but which forces others to feel the same towards him," adds O'Brien.

He's also a bloody fine rugby player. Today he becomes Ireland's 10th-most capped player, edging ahead of Nick Popplewell, with only Phil Orr above him in the pantheon of Irish props. He's been a top notch scrummager on both sides of the front-row, his tackling has seen them all, from wingers to fellow props, cut short at the quick, he has superb hands and he never shirks a battle.

The flip side was a short fuse and once dodgy fitness levels born out of an admitted loathing for training, and yet despite that he's gone and proved himself as resilient and durable as any of them.

Fifty caps though. Quite a haul. The first came in the 21-6 defeat to France in 1993 at Lansdowne Road. Only seven days beforehand, at the same ground, he was part of the Young Munster team which defeated St Mary's to win the All-Ireland League and was worried he mightn't be allowed to play in that famous win.

"Philip Danaher came up to me and warned, 'Claw, after about 10 or 15 minutes on the field you'll be sucking diesel big time, and you'll be saying to yourself what the **** am I doing here?' He said, 'Don't worry about it, everybody goes through it'. And he wasn't far wrong.

"We played well for the usual 40/50 minutes and then the floodgates opened. I was in good enough shape, but we were still amateur here, training two nights a week. So I was in whatever shape I could be in training two nights a week.

"It was fabulous standing for the national anthem in front of 40,000-odd people. After the match I don't remember much because I was the usual - buckled."

By his third cap he was already experiencing one of the two wins that stand out in the 49 Tests he's played in, the 17-3 victory over England in Lansdowne Road.

"Nobody expected us to beat them. When you look back on it, on paper they were a far better team than us. We just harried them all day and hit everything that moved."

Clohessy admits that his sheer heart got him through when his fitness levels weren't up to scratch.

"Sure I'm the worst in the world to train. Still am. I just do the bare amount. I never liked training. I can go out and play rugby on a field all day long but I actually hate doing running and weights. I've done bits of weights, but I've never done anything like what I should have done in the gym."

Behind every great man and all that: Anna is the biggest influence in his life and career, especially when she swayed him away from notions of retirement during the 26-week suspension for stamping on Olivier Roumat.

"She changed my mind for me and I'm glad that she did. She said the best thing I could do would be to go back out and prove them wrong, which I think I did."

He's crossed swords a couple of times with Roumat since. "I actually spoke to him on the phone soon after and apologised to him that it happened. I told him I didn't go out with the intent of doing what I did. I don't think anybody does that. Nobody goes onto the rugby field with the intent to damage somebody else or stand on them or whatever. Things just happen on the spur of the moment.

"I suppose I lost my head a few times. I was young as well and I suppose as you get older you get more experienced. I got overheated at times."

The worst part was simply not playing, though he adds: "I got so much flak from the press and from RTÉ. These days fellas are doing a lot worse. I was bitten a couple of weeks ago and the fella got away with it. I'm sure if that was me I'd never again play rugby. Without a doubt."

Besides, as he points out, "one door closed and another opened for me", namely a six-month contract with Queensland. He came home within four months after being picked for the Lions, only to miss out through injury.

All in all, fulfilment has come late in his career. The change from amateurism to professionalism and from tighthead to loosehead helped to extend his career, as did Munster and Ireland's upward curve.

"Once it went fully professional, you're training more, and you're fitter and you're enjoying the game more and you're playing better, plus the last couple of years with Munster have been fantastic and playing with friends like Gallimh (Galwey), Woody (Wood) and Hendo (Rob Henderson). So you're winning around 90 per cent of your matches per year.

"That makes it easier. Like, if I was playing with a team that was losing matches week-in, week-out, I wouldn't be playing still."

Thus when describing the best players he's ever played with, he says: "You have to look at the current team. Drico (Brian O'Driscoll), Rog (Ronan O'Gara), Humphs (David Humphreys), Woody. Woody's probably the best all-round player that I would ever have played with overall. David Wallace is an outstanding player."

He takes all of a microsecond to wonder whether his career would have endured this long if he'd started out as a professional. "No," he states categorically. "It would just be too long. I don't think you're body would take it."

He's glad he saw both sides of the game, the days when a friendly trip to Dublin or Belfast were highlights of the season. It could be more fun, and occasionally he misses it.

Against that, though, "the actual game is more enjoyable, it's better rugby. If you look at a video of a match from 10 years ago and look at one now, there's a huge difference. The more times I get my hands on the ball the more I enjoy the game."

The more he's riled the more he enjoys it too, seemingly. "Why do they boo him, do they not know it just gets him going?" laughs O'Connell when thinking back to the thinly veiled ire of the Stade Francais fans towards Clohessy last week. "You'd think they'd have learned by now."

The announcement of his name before a game is still liable to induce at least a hum from opposing fans, and a good deal more from French ones especially.

"I don't like France, and I don't like French people," he admits candidly. "I actually don't like them. Maybe they think we're English when we go over there, but they're not helpful."

Unsurprisingly "France in Paris" was the sweetest win.

Regrets, he's had a few; there have been few medals along the way, under-18 and under-20 cup medals and an AIL medal with Young Munster, and a few interpro titles. Time for one last crack at the European Cup with Munster and at the Six Nations with Ireland.

Countless good times outweigh the bad though. He's been a legend in his own playing career, and while he never managed to pull on a Lions' jersey, he surely had the heart of one. Ask him how he'd like others to remember his playing career, and he says:

"Just doing something that I really liked doing and that I gave everything when I went on the field."

There'd be no disputing that. He's one of a dying breed. We'll probably never see the likes of him again. "I don't think so. Maybe myself and Gaillimh are the last two of them."

The last of the Titans.