Twin threat: England rugby brothers Tom and Ben Curry to make history in Six Nations

They look the same, sound the same, are the same height, went to the same schools and play for the same club — in the same position, naturally.

Rugby-playing twins Tom and Ben Curry have come as a pair pretty much their entire life — oh yes, they even live together and currently appear to be rocking identical short haircuts — and this weekend marks the culmination of their arm-in-arm journey to the top of the sport.

The 26-year-old Curry brothers will become the first twins to play together in England’s men’s rugby team in the Six Nations match against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday.

Here’s a look at the path to their big day at Aviva Stadium:

Their sporting heritage

It was no surprise the twins became sportsmen.

Their father, David, played for England’s youth rugby teams as well as a team in the English top flight, Rosslyn Park, in the sport’s amateur days. Their mother teaches physical education, their uncle, John Olver, played rugby for England, and they have cousins who are professional soccer and rugby players.

David later became a headmaster and coached Tom and Ben at a local rugby club from the age of 4, but the twins also played soccer — they were both in the Manchester City academy, playing as a center-back pairing — and cricket to a county level. Tom has told the BBC he was “really good at indoor bowls,” getting the better of Ben.

“Even in garden cricket, one of us would probably be crying,” Tom said about their competitive relationship.

Through the rugby age groups

In their first organized rugby games as kids — in the sevens format — Ben played flyhalf and Tom was a center.

Things changed at the age of 11, when it was contact instead of tag rugby and 15 men instead of seven, as Tom moved to No. 8 before Ben joined him in the back row a couple of years later.

They started playing for Sale, a top-flight team outside Manchester, at age 14 and continued their rugby journey at the same boarding school from the age of 16.

By 18, they’d ditched plans to go to university because they were playing in the first team for Sale. That was in the 2016-17 season, when they made their debuts in the same match.

By the summer of 2017, England came calling.

Life in the national team

The twins were called up for the first time by England’s senior team for the summer tour of Argentina in 2017. Tom got on the team, becoming — at 19 — the youngest forward to play for England, but Ben didn’t feature at all because of an injury.

In fact, it was another four years before Ben made his debut for England, off the bench against the United States at Twickenham in June 2021 — while Tom was away in South Africa on duty with the British and Irish Lions, starting all three tests against the Springboks.

Tom was an England regular by that stage, including playing in the 2019 World Cup final. But they had already been playing for Sale together as the blindside (Ben) and openside (Tom) flankers.

Together for England, finally

They were both in England’s 23-man squad against New Zealand in November, with Tom on the starting team and Ben on the bench. Ben replaced Tom after 59 minutes so they didn’t play together.

On Saturday, they’ll stand shoulder to shoulder at Lansdowne Road — they are the same height, 1.85 meters — and start alongside each other against the Irish, the reigning Six Nations champions.

This time, Tom will play at blindside and Ben at openside, though they’ll be hard to distinguish aside from the number of their backs. Owning similar skillsets, they are scavengers at the breakdown and have a relentless work ethic.

Other famous twins in sports

In terms of titles won, the tennis-playing Bryan brothers from California stand out. Bob and Mike teamed up in doubles and won 16 Grand Slam titles, 119 tour-level titles and a 2012 Olympic gold medal, and became known for leaping to bump chests at the end of many victories.

Soccer has had the De Boer brothers — Ronald and Frank — from the Netherlands, who followed each other around throughout their careers and played in the same team at Ajax, Barcelona and Rangers, and then even in Qatar.

In ice hockey, Daniel and Henrik Sedin went from Sweden to the NHL. They were drafted in 1999 and played for 18 years for Vancouver. They were part of the Canuck team that lost Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup final to the Boston Bruins. They had their jerseys retired in 2020.

In rugby, Alan and Gary Whetton were twins who won the Rugby World Cup with New Zealand in 1987, while Emma and Jane Mitchell both played in England’s World Cup-winning team in 1994. More recently, the Contepomi twins, Manuel and Felipe, were center partners for Argentina while Anthony and Saia Fainga’a were both in Australia’s World Cup squad in 2011.

___

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby