Final Sunday’s return to BC Place in Vancouver after a five-year wait was largely a day to overlook for Canada’s males’s crew as they fell to a report 55-28 defeat to Japan.
Not too many positives might be drawn from the best way they have been reduce aside by Japan’s high-tempo rugby. However the best way they fought again valiantly to forestall an excellent heavier drubbing was one thing to take from the sport.
On the coronary heart of that spirited revival was the McMullin twins, Talon and Takoda, who scored their first worldwide tries within the defeat. Talon, who began at inside centre, hit a fantastic line and confirmed good tempo to energy over the road within the fiftieth minute, while Takoda got here on for the ultimate quarter and produced a fantastic end for Canada’s fourth attempt within the dying phases of the match. In crossing the whitewash in the identical fixture, the McMullins joined a really choose band of gamers.
Loads of twins have performed Take a look at rugby however not scored in the identical match, notably Gary and Alan Whetton (New Zealand), Ben and Tom Curry (England), Anthony and Saia Fainga’a and Richie and Rory Arnold (each Australia), Dan and Jean-Luc du Preez and Bismarck and Jannie du Plessis (each South Africa), Carlos and Sergio Souto (Spain), Diogo and Clemente Saavedra (Chile) and Chuma and Chumisa Qawe (South Africa).
However, as detailed beneath, our analysis reveals that the McMullins have joined at the very least six units of twins, listed alphabetically, in reaching the feat.
Poppy & Bryony Cleall (England Ladies)
Poppy Cleall is likely one of the most prolific try-scoring unfastened forwards round, with 22 tries in 65 Exams, whereas Bryony’s regular enterprise is doing the arduous, unseen work within the scrum and maul. Nevertheless, on one event, the 2 of them made their method onto the scoresheet in the identical match, a 52-10 win over Scotland in April 2021.
Felipe & Manuel Contepomi (Argentina Males)
Each midfield retailers, the Contepomis performed in three Rugby World Cups collectively. “For me, that was the head,” present Los Pumas head coach Felipe mentioned. The icing on the cake was each scoring tries in the identical match towards Namibia within the 2007 match, though the brotherly double act had carried out the identical towards Wales in Tucuman three years earlier.
Marcello & Massimo Cuttitta (Italy Males)
As a winger and a prop, the Cuttitta twins weren’t precisely the proverbial pies within the pod, however they did handle to attain Take a look at tries collectively twice: towards Morocco in Carcassonne in the course of the Mediterranean Video games match in 1993, and towards the Netherlands in Calvisano throughout a RWC qualifying match in 1994. Massimo’s legacy lives on within the type of the Cuttitta Cup, awarded yearly within the Guinness Males’s Six Nations to the winner of the Italy vs Scotland sport.
David & Diogo Mateus (Portugal Males)
The Mateus’ performed collectively for a very long time with each membership (Os Belenenses) and nation (Os Lobos) and are with out dispute essentially the most profitable rugby-playing twins from Portugal. Together with his aggressive tackling and top-end tempo, Diogo was seen because the extra gifted of the 2 and performed in twice as many Exams, scoring 15 tries from 74 appearances in comparison with David’s six from 36. Twice they scored in the identical match, and in the identical 12 months, towards Czech Republic and Georgia within the European Nations Cup in 2003.
Talon & Takoda McMullin (Canada Males)
Equivalent twins are a commentator’s nightmare however, fortunately, Takoda distinguishes himself from Talon by carrying a blue scrum cap. The 22-year-olds with solely a handful of caps between them look set for lengthy Take a look at careers judging by the affect they’ve made since debuting in July.
Marine & Romane Ménager (France Ladies)
Regardless of one being a pacey again and the opposite a back-row ahead, Marine and Romane are very related in each top and weight with solely a centimetre and some kgs between them in stature. One factor they share, in addition to the highlight given they’re usually addressed as one of many similar, is the very fact they every acquired a attempt towards Eire in 2019.
Emma & Jane Mitchell (England Ladies)
Born in 1966, the 12 months England received the lads’s Soccer World Cup, the Mitchell twins went on to grow to be world champions themselves. Emma performed scrum-half and Jane performed full-back when England received the ultimate of Ladies’s Rugby World Cup 1994, the previous scoring considered one of her three Take a look at tries within the 38-23 win over USA. While that victory has carried out down within the annals of time, England’s 67-0 win over Italy the 12 months earlier than was additionally memorable, if just for the very fact it was the one event the Mitchells scored in the identical Purple Roses match. Jane acquired one and Emma bagged a brace.
