Edinburgh prop hailed as world's best loose head

The 31-year-old veteran is currently preparing for what will be his 10th season of Magners League rugby having made his debut way back in 2001/02 campaign.

Jacobsen is one of the few players still plying his trade in the Magners League to have taken part in the very first season of Celtic Rugby and is now just two games away from his 100^th start in the competition.

And despite having made his Edinburgh debut in a friendly against the ACT Brumbies some 13 years ago, Jacobsen's star continues to rise.

Scotland's scrum coach Massimo Cuttitta has no doubt that Jacobsen is reaching the peak of his powers and could remain a significant force in the global game for years to come.

"Allan is the best in the world along with the Australian loose head (Benn Robinson)," former Italian international Cuttitta told the Edinburgh Evening News.

"He has improved so much, particularly the way he bores in at scrums - he's killing people nowadays.

"A lot of the time newspapers focus on Moray Low or Euan Murray at tight-head prop and praise them, which is fair enough.

"But the front row is a team effort and for them to really perform requires Allan to be working hard as well.

"A lot of it is to do with competition, with Dicko (Alasdair Dickinson) pushing him hard and that can help ensure Allan is, in many ways, just at the beginning of showing what he can really do."