A vital component for any side to be regarded as a truly great team is a great centre pairing, a partnership with that special understanding to know instinctively what the other will do in an attacking or defensive situation.
It takes time to develop this special understanding, but when everything clicks into place and a world class centre partnership emerges it is normal for them to remain together for a long time, barring injuries.
The best centre pairings in history compliment each other. Often one player is physically strong and the other regarded as more technically gifted or in possession of more speed over the ground.
A fine example of this perfect blend was the England pairing of Will Carling and Jeremy Guscott in the early 1990s, former captain Carling providing the brawn and Guscott the pace and flair.
Carling and Guscott played together 44 times, the most by any centre partnership, between 4 November 1989 and 14 December 1996, a period in which England won three Five Nations’ Grand Slams and reached the Rugby World Cup final in 1991.
Carling and Guscott came up against arguably the greatest ever centre pairing in the 1991 Rugby World Cup final, a youthful Tim Horan and Jason Little of Australia, both of whom had only turned 21 earlier that year.
In keeping with the recognised pattern Horan was the more powerful of the two with Little possessing the greater pace, although both were good players who knew how to attack and defend.
England discovered this to their cost in the Rugby World Cup final in 1991, which Australia won 12-6, with Carling admitting later that they had wrongly targeted Little as a potential weak link and the centre to run at.
Horan and Little first played together as schoolboys, later representing Australia together for the first time on the same day in November 1989 as Carling and Guscott, going on to play 32 times in the Green and Gold, second only to their England rivals.
Horan and Little would have played more games together but for injury. In 1994 Horan suffered a career threatening knee dislocation and associated ligament damage that kept him out until the following year.
By the time he returned Little was no longer the automatic choice for Australia and, although he and Horan last played together on 29 August 1998, Horan began what would result in a Rugby World Cup winning partnership with Daniel Herbert.
Horan and Herbert played together 22 times. Horan, arguably the greatest centre of his generation, retired from the international scene in June 2000 as just one of three players, John Eales and Jason Little the others, to lift the Webb Ellis Cup twice.
The only current centre pairing with a chance of eclipsing the achievements of Carling and Guscott or Horan and Little are Kevin Maggs and Brian O’Driscoll, who have played together 25 times in the Ireland midfield.
One record that might well be eclipsed at Rugby World Cup 2003 is Philippe Sella’s world record of 111 test matches. Veteran England prop Jason Leonard has 106 coming into RWC 2003.
Sella had five partners over those record number of games, playing most often, 24 times, alongside Thierry Lacroix.
Other Sella partnerships include Franck Mesnel with 21 appearances, Denis Charvet with 17 and Didier Codorniou and Marc Andrieux with 16 appearances each.
Carling and Guscott are the only England pairing to feature in the list of 23 leading centre partnerships, although now that Mike Tindall has established himself alongside Will Greenwood it is likely this pair will feature regularly in the future.