Siblings in rugby
Families are the backbone of the sport of rugby. From the early days when mum would run up and down the sidelines, often embarrassing her off-spring on the paddock to dad’s chest growing even larger as their sons first receive their international call-up.
Most rugby players grow up around the sport and spend very many hours in the backyard kicking, passing and tackling each other.
Through the years the amount of siblings who have gone on to represent their countries have abounded and some of these families earned great renown on the rugby field.
In this article we highlight the most famous of siblings who played together in international games.
We are sure there are similar examples at your local club, even fathers and sons turning out for their club.
One of the earliest examples of siblings in a test was back in 1875 when the three Edinburgh Academicals brothers, Arthur, James and Ninian Finlay played for Scotland. They all appeared together once in 1875, in the 0–0 draw against England at Raeburn Place and became the first set of brothers to play for Scotland.
Ninian Finlay was still a schoolboy, a pupil of Edinburgh Academy, when he lined up with his brothers, Arthur and James.
The eldest brother, James, had played in the historic first international against England in 1871 and was winning his fourth cap. Arthur was playing his only international that day but his Ninian, aged only seventeen and still one of the two youngest players to be capped by Scotland, was at the beginning of an illustrious career in which he played nine consecutive matches for Scotland and became the first player to drop three goals in an international career.
In 1886, the three Ross brothers, Dan, John and Joseph, were three quarters who played for Ireland at Raeburn Place against Scotland in a very heavy defeat. Centre John was the Ireland captain, and won his fifth cap like his brother Dan, but Joseph won his only cap as a late call-up in a team severely weakened by no less than ten changes from its original selection. Unsurprisingly none of the three brothers was ever selected to represent Ireland again.
Four Neilson brothers represented Scotland with distinction between 1891 and 1900 but no more than two brothers ever took the field together in an international. The third brother, Gordon, played his only match against England in 1894 as a late replacement for his oldest brother George in the forwards, but the youngest of the brothers, Robert, did not play for Scotland until 1898 by which time his older brothers’ international careers were over.
More brother duos have gone on to represent Scotland with aplomb. Gavin and Scott Hastings. Gavin, and by extension his younger brother Scott, were two talismanic figures for Scottish rugby through most of the 80s and into the mid-90s and together played 51 times together from 1986 to 1995.
Shortly after that, another brother duo, John and Martin Leslie found themselves side by side singing the Flower of Scotland. Combined they turned out 16 times for Scotland from 1998 to 2002.
The South African selectors chose the three Luyt brothers to tour the United Kingdom and France in 1912-13. Centre RR ‘Dick’ Luyt and his younger brother, half back FP ‘Freddie’ Luyt, had already played for Western Province and the Springboks against the touring British Isles side in 1910. On their northern hemisphere tour they were joined by their eldest brother John, a forward from Eastern Province who played with his brothers against Scotland, Wales and England in three matches of their victorious Grand Slam.
In Italy’s first international match against Spain in Barcelona in May 1929, the three Vinci brothers, Paolo, Francesco and Piero took the field in the three-quarters at the beginning of the game. They were joined at half-time by their eldest brother Eugenio, a back row forward, to provide the first and to my knowledge only occasion on which four brothers played together during an international match. It was Eugenio’s only cap, but the three younger brothers played together a second time against Spain a year later in Milan with Paolo scoring the decisive try in a 3-0 victory.
More than fifty years were to elapse before three brothers from the Italian Francescati family – Bruno, Nello and Rino – played together in the national three-quarter line against Romania at Padua in 1981. Although he never played alongside his older brothers in the national side, their young brother Ivan was an outstanding centre three-quarter who played thirty eight times for Italy from 1990 to 1997 and died tragically young in 2002.
The Tuilagi family from Samoa joined this rare group of triplets over twenty years later. In 2002 Samoa defeated Fiji 22-10 Prince Charles Park, Nadi with brothers Alesana on his international debut and Freddie in his fifteenth international and Henry winning his third cap at No 8. Uniquely, five brothers in the Tuilagi family played for Samoa between 1992 and 2017. The youngest brother, Manu was brought up in England and is still a first-choice centre for the England side having won 43 caps since 2011. The total of six brothers from the same family in international rugby is most unlikely ever to be equalled.
Probably the most recognized rugby siblings, certainly these days, are the Barrett brothers, Beauden, Jordie and Scott of New Zealand.
The threesome became the first trio of brothers to appear for the All Blacks in a World Cup match in 2019 after they were named to start for the three-times world champions against Canada in their Pool B clash in Oita on Wednesday.
They were also the first trio of brothers to start in the same World Cup match since Elisi, Manu and Fe’ao Vunipola represented Tonga against Scotland in 1995. The three Pisi brothers – Ken, Tusi and George – all played for Samoa against South Africa in 2015 but only Ken started that game.
They also made history when they first represented New Zealand in 2018, linking arms to sing the national anthem before taking on France in 2018.
It’s not uncommon for two brothers to line up for the All Blacks – 46 sets have done so in the past – but for a single family to have such a foothold within the Kiwis is unprecedented.
During the 2015 Rugby World Cup two sets of brothers were included in the England squad – Billy and Mako Vunipola and the brothers Ben and Tom Youngs, whose father Nick was a former England scrum-half.
In recent years twin brothers Tom and Ben Curry have both represented England. Sale Sharks named both Tom and Ben joint recipients of the Young Player of the Season award at the end of the 2016-17 campaign. Following the award, both Tom and Ben received call-ups to the England squad. Tom replaced Ben in an uncapped game against the Barbarians in May 2017 after his brother suffered an injury.
Making his England debut five days before his 19th birthday against Argentina in 2017, Tom became England’s youngest forward since 1912. In that period, only Jonny Wilkinson debuted for the country at a younger age.
Starting every game for England in the 2019 Six Nations, Tom Curry also scored tries against Wales and Scotland. At just 20 years old, Curry had become integral to England’s back row. He has played at both flanker and No 8 for England.
Former England hooker John Olver is their uncle and former Northampton Saints fly-half Sam Oliver is their cousin.
South Africa have also had their fair share of siblings donning the Green and Gold together, and we will name the most famous ones.
We start out with the Du Plessis brothers Carel and Michael. Carel was the ‘Prince of Wings’. Michael was – according to Danie Craven – a rugby genius. In the 1980s, the Du Plessis brothers terrorised local and international opposition with their speed and elan. Even now, some 30 years after they were in their prime, the names of Carel and Michael du Plessis, and that of their older brother, Willie, are synonymous with the golden era of Western Province rugby.
Brothers Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis, not related to Du Plessis clan mentioned above, have played together in Tests since 2007 and they became the first set of brothers ever to play in 50 Tests for South Africa back in 2013. In 2015, the Du Plessis’ brothers represented South Africa in their third World Cup.
The Du Preez brothers, Roberts and twins Daniel and Jean-Luc, are all Springbok internationals while their father Rob was also capped by the Boks.
Jean-Luc made his debut for South Africa in 2016 as a flanker, although he also plays at lock and number eight. A year later twin brother Dan finally made his debut at international level.
Older brother Robert was named by the new South African head coach Rassie Erasmus as one of 17 uncapped players in the 43–man Springbok squad for the 2018 June international, joining his brothers in the squad, thus making history as the first set of three siblings to be named in a Springbok squad together.
The twins were included in the Springbok squad to face the British and Irish Lions in 2021.
