Over time, the Brothers club has been just that as non-identical twins Henry and Hugo Smith are discovering for the men in butcher stripes.
Centre Henry has made a rock-solid start to the StoreLocal Hospital Cup for the Brethren who have started their premiership defence with a 3-0 record.
His no-frills, get-the-job-done style has fitted the backline perfectly.
Halfback Hugo was playing third grade last weekend. With Will Cartwright in Fiji in the back-up group for the Queensland Reds, Hugo finds himself on the bench in first grade for the first time.
Saturday afternoon’s big clash will be a grand final rematch with Brothers up against Wests at Crosby Park and a cherished moment when the brothers play together.
There might have been three Smith brothers on the field but flyhalf Byron will be missing at Wests for a few weeks with shin splints.
Across history, brothers Jeff and Paul McLean, Liam and Andrew Shaw, Shane and Mark Nightingale, Hugh and Jimmy Flynn, the Bone boys, Harry and Will Wilson and so many other sibling duos have revelled in a common history at the Brothers club.
Brothers coach Ben McCormack has been a forced into a few changes with winger Bas Hanna copping a two-game suspension for his aerial collision against Norths.
Jake Sargood will come in at fullback with Athen Waia-McGuiggan sliding to the wing. Benn Dalle Cort will play outside centre with David Fusitu’a unavailable this week.
One big promotion for Brothers is Queensland Under-20s backrower Vaiuta Latu getting his first starting role at flanker after some barnstorming efforts as Player of the Match in reserve grade.
“Wests have got a lot of very good players and are well coached. They might not have made the start (1-3) they wanted but you can see it’s there and you hope it doesn’t click this weekend,” Brothers coach Ben McCormack said.
“They may have lacked time together as a team so pressuring that cohesion is definitely part of our plan.”
Strong-running Reds squad back Isaac Henry will be in the centres for the second game of his return.
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Some wonderful smiling faces in Tonga this week where 140 Ballymore rugby balls turned up for women’s players who make do with little.
It all flowed from last year’s tour by the Queensland Reds men’s and women’s teams to play the national teams of Tonga.
“As part of the tour, we visited local grassroots rugby teams and it became apparent that the women’s teams lacked simple rugby equipment such as rugby balls, in some cases having to wait until the men finished training to use them,” Queensland Rugby Union Chair Brett Clark said.
This week, the balls were delivered courtesy of donors through the QRU Foundation.
“Rugby can thrive by making the whole ecosystem strong,” Clark added.
Special thanks to the Australian Government’s PacificAus Sports program for supporting the tour.
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Well done to Easts hooker Max Craig who is on the verge of his Super Rugby Pacific debut in Suva on Saturday.
It’s hard to imagine it being as bizarre as the Queensland debut of former Wests flyer Brenton Fielke in 1993. The puddled field in Suva was awash with frogs when he ran on.
More than that, when he slid in cover defence his leg got pinned against a goalpost.
Something had to give. Thankfully, it wasn’t his leg that snapped. Play was halted until a new goal post was put up.
When you think you've seen everything in rugby, you haven’t.
