By Jack Brady (NRL.com)
The saying 'blood is thicker than water' certainly rings true when running an eye over the Australian Test side named to take on New Zealand on Friday night.
For Kangaroos wing/centre duo and identical twins Brett and Josh Morris, this adage definitely sticks – regardless of whether they're playing together or against one another as they are more inclined to do nowadays.
While they are clearly very proud of each other's achievements, a degree of sibling seems to be bubbling away not too far from the surface.
Get the pair together and ask whether there have been any try-scoring competitions or bets throughout their careers and the light-hearted the bickering begins.
Josh: "How many [tries] are you on this year?"
Brett: "Five"
Josh: "Yeah, he's got me already."
Brett: "We haven't done that [have a bet] for a while because he owes me about five cases of beers."
Josh: "I beat him one year and he didn't pay up, that's why!"
Brett: "That's because you owed me three!"
However, Dragons winger Brett clears the air immediately, reassuring that "anything they do is all in a good nature".
"I think it brings out the best in us, we always want to outdo each other and I'm sure on Friday night it'll be the same," Brett told NRL.com.
Incredibly Bulldogs centre Josh - included in Tim Sheens' side following Jarryd Hayne's withdrawal with a shoulder injury – initially refused to believe his selection, instead assuming he had been stitched up by friends.
"I was at the pub celebrating a mate's birthday and I got a call off another mate and I said 'Nah, I don't believe you' and then I had a text from Dessie [Hasler] and [the Bulldogs] operations manager so I thought then he might have been telling the truth," Josh explains.
"Then I spoke to Brett and we were both over the moon and very excited."
While Brett is no stranger to the flanks of the Australian Test team, he admits the excitement and the occasion becomes a whole lot more special when he knows he'll have his brother literally by his side.
"Being at different clubs we don't get to play together now so any chance we get to play together is a special occasion but to do it for Australia, especially a home Test in Sydney for us where all our family can make it is even more special," Brett said.
"We've played a lot of footy together over the last 20 years, obviously not much of late but there's a fair understanding there of each other's games and we pretty much watch each other every weekend, so that makes it a little bit easier."
Josh adds: "Every time I get to play with Brett is an honour. Playing for our national team – there's no greater achievement... and we want to put our best foot forward.
"I really want to have a big game after getting another opportunity to play in the Australian jumper – you don't want to let it go."
With the brothers having only played twice together previously in the green and gold, against France in 2009 and Ireland in last year's World Cup, should we expect to see any magical twin power combinations light up Allianz Stadium on Friday night?
"I'm sure we'll work on something – we'll have something up our sleeve for the game," Josh assures.
