Leo Cullen is urging Devin Toner to have a big end to Leinster's season as he reaches another milestone at the RDS tonight (8.15pm).
Giant second row Toner, 34, is selected to face Ospreys and thus Gordon D'Arcy's 261-cap record for the province.
Blues head coach Cullen smiled: "I remember seeing Dev for the first time, he was playing for Irish Schools against Wales in Donnybrook and I said 'oh my word, the size of yer man!'.
"I was still playing at that stage, he comes in in the early 2000s and to see him progress...we played a lot of games together.
"And to see his progression, not just as a player but as a person and an individual, he didn't have much room to grow any taller but he's a great character.
"It's an amazing milestone.
"Obviously, Darce was a great servant to the club. You see some of these names pop up again, we see him more on the TV these days but he's a great Leinster man and Dev the same.
"Hopefully, the next few weeks go well for Dev and he goes well in this game and has a big end to the season.
"There's a lot of things up in the air, that's the challenging piece around the contracting cycle at the moment because there's a bit of a squeeze on due to the situation we find ourselves in.
"We just have to make some decisions, irrespective of the individual cases as well.
"People have to make decisions for family or whatever else is the motivating factor."
Toner, 34, made his debut against Border Reivers in January 2006 and is finally set to emulate the achievement of D'Arcy, who made his 261st appearance off the bench in May 2015 against Benetton at the Ballsbridge venue.
Scott Fardy will skipper the Blues in their final regular game season and Cullen will be hoping his side can maintain their record of just one game unbeaten ahead of Saturday week's decider against Munster.
Fardy switches from the second row to the blindside flanker role, while Rory O'Loughlin moves to the right wing with Cian Kelleher missing out through injury.
Leinster will try out a new centre partnership with Ciaran Frawley returning from injury to partner Jamie Osborne, who makes his second start for the province.
Rowan Osborne starts at scrumhalf, with Harry Byrne outside him in the number 10 jersey.
Peter Dooley will win his 90th cap when he lines up alongside Séan Cronin, who is back from injury, and Michael Bent in the front row.
Josh Murphy starts at number eight for the first time for the Blues, while on the bench Seán O'Brien and Tim Corkery hope to play at home for the first time after making their debuts at Zebre last weekend.
