Not since a suburban Glasgow back garden a decade ago has the rumble of the Gray brothers locking horns been heard, but it’s going to happen at last for their country at BT Murrayfield on Saturday.
Richie and Jonny have been slated to form Scotland’s second row almost as soon as they both stretched above 6ft 5in, but they’ll finally come together against Argentina in the opening viagogo Autumn Test, for the first time on any ground since their boyhood wrestles back home.
Richie, 25, has been the standard bearer and the example for Jonny, 20, all his life and rugby career. But it’s the younger who is the line-out caller and bossing his British Lion brother around against the formidable Pumas, a key and crucial role for a lad just six months out of his teens.
“A pretty special moment,” said Richie when their names came up together on a screen when the team was formally announced. “Pretty surreal, and a little emotional.”
But there were no high fives, no brotherly hugs. “We went for training straight after (the announcement) so we knew we had to get our heads down and just focus on that,” said Jonny.
“To be involved in the Scottish set-up is special anyway and we are very grateful to be here. It will also be very special and emotional to be representing Scotland beside my brother.”
They’ve never been on a rugby pitch together in a game the closest they came was against South Africa in last year’s Autumn Tests.
“We passed each other,” said Richie of being replaced for Jonny’s first cap. “The only other time is the back garden, and it was easy then when you were 12 and your brother just seven, but it got a bit harder as he started to get a bit bigger.”
Now Jonny has the authority on the pitch, as Richie happily admits.
“He’s the boss, he tells me where to go. I just shut up and listen but, corny as it sounds, we like to bounce ideas off each other. If he thinks he can do things better he will tell me. Likewise if I think I can do it better I will tell him. That’s the way it works.”
Jonny might have been hardened by being beaten by his big brother in the back garden, but he quickly learned the benefits of watching him.
“I’ve seen Rich growing up working really hard to get where he is on and off the pitch,” he pointed out. “His work ethic, the extras he had to do at home, his diet, extra fitness, his extra weights, it was something I knew I had to do.
“There were obviously some fights now and again growing up, but it was great having him about on and off the pitch. I could go to him about anything. Even now with him in France he is only a phone call away.”
That willingness to watch and learn has helped Jonny take the advice of others, especially in becoming a team leader despite being the youngest in the squad.
“I am lucky I have had great mentors like Al Kellock who has been incredible for me,” he said. “Every week he sits through the line-outs with me, saying this is how he would do it and what he would look at.
“To have someone like him with all his experience is fantastic, and Jim (Hamilton) too, another guy with great experience.”
It seems just a season or two that Richie was the baby of the national team, but now he is the experienced hand winning his 40th cap.
“I certainly think there is a positive feeling now,” he said. “When we go through the plays in training everything feels pretty sharp and fluid.
“It is credit to these young guys I have to laugh saying that coming through in the squad. They have performed exceptionally well and trained exceptionally well.
“We’re really looking forward to seeing how we go at the weekend. We are going up against a great team; every time they played in the Rugby Championship they pushed some of the top teams in the world close, and they finished off with a great win over Australia last time out.”