When the Evans brothers run out at the Stade de France tomorrow they will not for a moment think of the Hastings, Lamonts or the 17 other sets of brothers who have played together for Scotland. Instead Max and Thom's minds will be on their late grandfather and what their joint appearance would have meant to him.
With five caps between them the Glasgow Warriors backs have been included in a Scotland team intent on attacking rugby, the like of which has not been seen since the grand slam of 1990 when Gavin and Scott Hastings were in blue. Max, only six when that was achieved, was born in Torquay and schooled in Berkshire, but said this week that his grandad, Fred Thom, made sure they both knew what it was to be proud Scots.
"Because we both went to boarding school together the time we spent with our Grandad was on a Sunday," said the 25-year-old outside-centre. "Our parents lived in Portugal, so we spent our Sundays with our grandparents and any rugby games that were on, he'd be part of it with us and he'd be a proud Scot, so he'd support anyone who played against England. I know it will probably be quite emotional come Saturday, knowing he'd be very proud upstairs for both his grandsons."
His talented grandsons have already given Fred much to be proud of. They were key members of the Glasgow side that recorded a momentous win at Toulouse in the Heineken Cup this year and winger Thom, 18 months his brother's junior, said there is a psychological edge to having got one over on a team containing the French backs Clément Poitrenaud, Yannick Jauzion and Cédric Heymans, who all feature in Marc Lièvremont's side this weekend.
"Playing Toulouse for Glasgow is definitely a plus going into this game, having beaten a team like that over in France, with the talent they have in their backline especially, I think a lot of their players will be starting in the French team," said Thom. "I'm just going to try and get the ball in my hands and do what I know I can do."
The keen rugby man that he was, their grandfather must be relieved that his son Brian's irritatingly multi-faceted offspring both came back to the sport after excelling at two very different vocations for a time. Max, nursing a back injury, took a break from rugby and became a scratch golf professional, as you do. Thom, on the other hand, felt a need for a break from the sport having completed his schooling at Wellington College and duly joined the boy band Twen2y 4 Se7en, which toured with the likes of Westlife and Peter Andre.
While he enjoyed the adulation of teenage girls, he admits the animosity and rancour of 80,000 French rugby fans will be far more special. "It was great when you hear 50,000 screaming girls, and booing as well, I hate that. But it's going to be nothing like Saturday and as Max said, I'm sure it is going to be quite emotional, it's something I absolutely can't wait for." Thom will be hoping none of the crowd on Saturday throw their underwear at him as they did in his boy-band days, which incidentally, big brother Max quite enjoyed too.
"I was usually a spectator and girls would notice me in the crowd and say, 'He looks like the guy on stage', and they'd ask me if I was his brother and I'd end up having to run away as well," laughed Max, before Thom clarified: "I must stress, they weren't pretty girls, that's why we ran away. If they'd been nice girls then we'd probably have stayed around."
Neither brother will be running away from the challenge on Saturday and they hope that their instinctive understanding, honed at Wellington College where they played together in the school team voted the best by Rugby World magazine, will give them an edge over their Gallic opponents: "The good thing about playing with your brother is you can read him better than anyone. Max has always been the one since our schooldays for making the half break and I've always been there to finish it off."
