HOW many Scotland caps can Ross Ford win? 110 today; 130 or more if he plays to the next Rugby World Cup? 150 if he plays on into his late 30s? Who knows?

As he breaks the Scottish record, he doesn't really want to talk numbers, though he does say he is determined to make the World Cup in two years, by which time he will be 35.

What is certain is that the Kelso hooker has come a long, long way from the raw teenage flanker who had never thought about playing in the front row until one of those a fateful conversations with his new club coach.

The Borders had just been re-formed and Tony Gilbert, a New Zealander, was the man asked to get them started. "I probably would not have been here if I had not changed," Ford acknowledged. "There were a lot of talented back row players during my time.

"Tony Gilbert was the one for changing me. He took me in and asked me how I felt playing at hooker. I think he also asked if I fancied a bash at playing prop. “Nae, chance,” I said. He said 'right okay, hooker it is'. And that was it.The Herald:

"He had gone on past experience when he had worked with Anton Oliver [the All Black hooker]. He said I had the same body shape and the same skills. Tony [Gilbert] had a strong work ethic he instilled in me as well."

From age-group flanker to Scotland hooker took only two years, though the second cap was another two years away and he did not start playing regularly until 2007, by which point he had developed the powerful physique of a player who had spend his whole life in the trenches of the front row.

He had the occasional spells out of the side, but never for long, This season he started the RBS Six Nations Championship on the bench, but was back starting by the end – typical.

"I can go to the next World Cup," Ford insisted. "I feel in the shape of my life just now. With Fras [Fraser Brown], Rambo [Stuart McInally] and George [Turner, the third hooker on tour] coming through, I have had to adapt.

"It was a kick in the backside when I was put on the bench, so I have to get up again. Reaching the record has given me another boost to get better again. We have been playing some good rugby and have been playing some good rugby just now.

"I have been lucky with the folk I have come up through with. I have seen them working hard. My coaches have always said hard work is the key."

There have been lots of landmarks on the way to breaking the record. Three World Cups and counting, some days of despair, some, such as the 2010 match at Croke Park when Dan Parks kicked an 80th minute penalty to win the game, days of triumph and joy

There is also the odd physical reminder. Actual caps are handed out for the debut, 50th and 100th games, so he has three – "Laura [his wife] got them all framed and they go up on the wall sometimes, depends on whether there are any better pictures of the boys going about," he joked.

Then there is the portrait by Jim Fleming, an artist based in his native Kelso, that was presented to him to mark the century of caps. He is not going to be given the chance to forget his achievements.

Chris Paterson, whose record he broke, has been in touch congratulating him, but he has been actively discouraging his team-mates on the current tour from getting involved.

"It is something that just happened, like the 100 thing. It just crept up," he commented. "It is definitely a massive honour. It is strange, when other boys speak to you about it. It was 13 years ago now, it is a very long time. When you hear the boys speaking about it you realise how long you have been about.

"It has not been mentioned that much. They know what I am like. I am not that fussed about these things."

What does matter to Ford are the memories, the World Cups, the tours – especially ones like the one they are currently on where they have picked up big scalps – but most of all the friends he has made, characters he has met and the laughs he has had.

Furthermore, his 108th cap saw him double his try count with two scores against Italy, one a typical front-row touchdown at the back of a maul, the second, a suggestion that the muscle memory of his flanker days has not all gone as he popped up on a perfect support line to run it in.

Coincidentally, that was just a couple days after a team forfeit had seen him forced to do a commentary on his previous Test try, only to realise it had been nine years earlier, against Argentina in 2008,

Yet, if he can rediscover his scoring touch after all these years, then surely the next World Cup is more than possible and maybe even games beyond that. Don't stop counting, there is a lot more of Ross Ford to come.

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