Ashley-Cooper's junior rugby league team The Entrance Tigers had folded and he needed a new team. A friend was running around on grass courts, so the 14-year-old asked his mother if he could take it up too.

"I discouraged him because at that stage, being a single mum, I thought the travel involved in tennis and the cost of it would far outweigh the cost of playing rugby," Karen Ashley-Cooper said.

"My father played rugby, my brothers played rugby, and [Karen's brother, former Wallaby Graeme Bond] was doing well too at the time. I never really liked league and I basically told him tennis was a rubbish game.

"Bearing in mind that if he'd made it as far in tennis as he has in rugby, well ..."

So there's no luxury condo in Miami or garage full of sportscars. Just immense pride in what her boy from the central coast did with his natural gifts.

When Ashley-Cooper takes his place in the history books alongside Australia's five other Test centurions – George Gregan (139), Nathan Sharpe (116), George Smith (111), Stephen Larkham (102) and David Campese (101) – Leinster coach Matt O'Connor believes the milestone should be celebrated for more than just the physical achievement.

"It's a pretty good story because it's not a well-trodden pathway to the elite level or the 100 Test level, where he's come in relation to his schooling and rugby pedigree as a kid," said O'Connor, who was a Brumbies assistant coach when Ashley-Cooper turned up there 10 years ago.

"It should give the powers that be a bit of confidence that there are kids outside the so-called top rugby schools, very high-quality blokes out there, that prove we should be investing in those pathways as well."

O'Connor recalls a "surfie" from Berkeley Vale High School, whose physical attributes were beyond question but who did not yet have a grasp of his own aspirations.

That person is scarcely distinguishable from the assured, ambitious player who, in the words of NSW captain and close friend Dave Dennis, was the most consistent player in the Waratahs's title-winning back line.

Leadership roles have come late in Ashley-Cooper's career, but he has borne them with ease this year.

"He was a huge part of the team's success this year, a huge influence on people, but he went about it differently," Dennis said.

"When your traditional captain or leader would bark and scream at guys, he would just go out and perform, he'd just make sure he was the most consistent guy in the back line every single week."

In a refreshingly transparent development, Ashley-Cooper said last week he would head overseas after next year's world cup to play out his career in Europe.

It is a move O'Connor believes will pay off handsomely for the 30-year-old, whose reputation offshore is undiminished by his use as an all-weather Wallabies utility for most of his career.

"He has probably been unfortunate in that he's played 100 Tests in that era where the Wallabies have underperformed," O'Connor said.

"But the reality is his reputation in Europe is unbelievable. Behind Izzy [Folau], he would be the most sought-after Australian back bar none."

If the Wallabies' campaign in England next year ends in disappointment, Australia's self-confessed obsessive perfectionist will leave these shores without a world cup win to his name, or a coveted Bledisloe.

"For a guy who has given so much to the Super [Rugby] game and Test level not to win those things is incredibly frustrating," O'Connor said.

"But the saving grace for him was that he was in and around a good Brumbies group early on and was part of the Waratahs when they won, so he has now got some trophies to his name after spending a decade as one of the premier outside backs in the world."