As Tom and Ben Curry become the first twin brothers to start a Test for England, against Ireland on Saturday, we hear from some of the men who shaped their careers
History will be made on Saturday as Tom and Ben Curry become the first twin brothers to start a Test match together for England. The 26-year-old Sale back-rows will line up against Ireland in the opening round of the 2025 Men’s Six Nations.
Tom, the younger of the two by 90 minutes, has stolen a march on his brother having chalked up 56 caps, a Six Nations title, a World Cup final appearance and a British & Irish Lions tour.
Yet in discussing how he has attained such heights, it’s impossible to separate him from Ben, who is preparing to win his seventh cap. They’ve played nearly all of their rugby together and many fail to distinguish between them in playing ability, let alone in physical likeness. Indeed, in 2017 Ben was selected ahead of his brother for England’s tour of Argentina but suffered a back spasm and saw Tom take his place.
In 2021, we spoke to four men who helped shape the two players and below is a version of the feature we ran that year. We start with their father David, a former Rosslyn Park prop…
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Side by side for the anthem last autumn. The two have played together since the age of four (Getty)
THE FATHER
David Curry is head of Bishop Heber High School and coached his sons until age 16
“I was acting coach at Grasshoppers in London when Ben and Tom started, for a couple of months, as four-year-olds playing tag rugby. I got a promoted post to the school I’m at now, Heber Bishop, and we moved to Nantwich. That’s why I played for Crewe & Nantwich, the club is at the bottom of our road. The mortgage broker for our house was the club sponsor, and his son was the same age as Ben and Tom. He said would I help coach? So I started coaching an U7s side which Ben and Tom played for at four years old.
I coached Ben and Tom from four to 16 and there was a lot of positive discrimination against them. I never wanted a parent to think they had any favouritism, so they had to work harder than the others. And I think it’s part of their DNA now. They’re great with referees, their acceptance of decisions.
They had exposure to anything and everything. Gymnastics, athletics, swimming, they were great cricketers, very good footballers, they were at the Man City academy and Crewe Alex academy. We didn’t want them to be one-trick ponies.
When we moved north and had the luxury of a small garden, yes, we had the Xbox but they were innately drawn to being outside. They’ve destroyed most windows in the house at some stage. Our greenhouse was in pieces!
When they played seven-a-side, they played fly-half and centre because there was no point putting them in the three-man scrum. When they went to five-man scrums, they stayed centre and fly-half. Ben was always fly-half, Tom the centre. Ben’s always had that greater control, he will put boot to ball more, he’s more deft.
When you go into contact at 11 in the school system, you had to have eight in the scrum. So that was the change. We moved Tom to No 8, so his destiny of playing back-row occurred earlier. Ben stayed as fly-half for a couple more years.
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The brothers celebrating a Sale victory in 2019 (Getty)
With all my squads, I was keen on making them great rugby athletes. So props were passing, kicking, catching high balls, and David Wilks at Sale was a real advocate of that. When they went to Sale at 14, we fell in love with his principles. When they were U14s, U15s, they would go to Newcastle, who had learnt how to scrum and lineout and we’d get battered. But by the time they got to 16, 17, we ran rings around them because of our spatial ball awareness.
They truly embraced rugby. Mum would say on a Saturday morning, ‘Dad’s off to play rugby, do you want to go swimming or ice skating?’ And every Saturday they would choose to watch me play.
And they started to be the touchjudge, they were waterboys, they got into the changing rooms, they saw the drinking games, they got a real experience of traditional rugby ahead of professionalism. They’ve seen the Man of the Match decking his Guinness and Mars bar, and the effing and jeffing at half-time.
And I think when they went to Oundle [at 16] they thought every first-team pitch was a billiard table. Having grown up at Crewe & Nantwich and gone to places like Ormskirk, Sunday morning in a quagmire, has given them that. They’ve had a great grounding, they’ve played games in driving rain on the side of a hill.
Ben has been remarkable in his support for Tom. I think Tom has to be more humble. He was at home with his brother when he got the Lions call [in 2021], they watched it on TV. All we could hear in the background was ‘well done’ and his brother saying ‘thank you’. That was it.
How hard must it have been for Tom, the best moment of his life but he decided not to be jumping up and down because his brother was there. That’s a special bond, they respect each other. But that competition between them is live and real and drives them massively.
I wouldn’t want to overplay the twin thing but they do have that symmetry and connection, they just have a real understanding of what each other is going to do. And that’s to the betterment of each other.”
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Ben scores for Sale in their win at Bristol Bears. He’s been sensational this season (CameraSport/Getty)
THE YOUTH COACH
David Wilks was the academy coach at Sale who now manages the Leicester Tigers academy
“Ben and Tom came through the DDP (developing player programme) groups at U15. They were very talented, very competitive, had a fantastic work ethic.
When they went to Oundle School, I was desperate to not lose them to Saints. I said to David, ‘Look, we’ll do everything we can to keep them, we’ll get them back in the holidays and reimburse their train fares’. And so I put sessions on for them, I did a lot of coaching with them in the holidays, which probably fast-tracked them a bit.
I was just feeding their competitiveness really. They were happy to whack each other for a few hours in the garden but there was no real technique to it. And that’s when we looked at tackle techniques, jackal techniques – that was a big focus.
I put them in with the senior academy, you’d have non-23 sessions on a Friday. You’ve got 15 players who are pretty disillusioned because they’ve not been picked for the weekend. And then you put these kids in with them who have never trained up with seniors. And the Curry boys were flying into everything.
We used to pair people up in the gym. WattBike, press-ups, a circuit. So I got Tom and Ben in one morning with the senior players. After ten minutes, Tom was training on his own. I said, ‘Where’s Ben?’ He said, ‘Ben’s gone outside to be sick. I’ve managed to hold it in.’ All the other boys are just going through the motions and the Curry boys are going so hard at each other that they’re making each other sick!
At 15 and 16 we did a lot of core skills – catch, pass, ruck, tackle – because players change position a lot. We played North Wales and I put Tom in the centre, and Ben once or twice too in an academy game, because it put them out of their comfort zone. It put their skill-sets under more pressure.
Ben was a better athlete at that stage; he was fitter, a better ball-handler, whereas Tom loved the contact more. I played them off against each other a bit. I’d get into Tom when Ben was beating him for fitness and encourage Ben to get the better of Tom physically.
Tom was slightly more physical and I think that still stands to an extent, he’s always had that bit of edge. Whereas Ben was more of an all-round player at 16. Tom was picked for England U16s in the top group and Ben was picked in the middle group. How can you pick one over the other? I think Tom’s physicality might have got him noticed more. You’d see a big hit from Tom and he’d get the selection. Whereas Ben had maybe made three or four tackles in the same breath but they wouldn’t have been quite as physical.
My worry was when Tom played 20 Premiership games in his first year out of school. He’s got to look after his body, and he does, but that toll, the amount of rugby he’s played at a young age… Ben has had a steadier rise and he may well have a longer stint at it.”
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Tom passes against Australia. He was a World Player of the Year nominee in 2019 (CameraSport/Getty)
THE FACILITATOR
John Olver was Head of Rugby at Oundle School and is the twins’ uncle
“My sister Susie is married to David. I said to her when the boys were born, ‘These two are going to be absolute monsters’. Susie was anti them leaving home to go to Oundle, she got quite emotional about it. Oundle is a very academic school, so you couldn’t just get hold of a rugby player with two brain cells and say ‘off you go’ because they wouldn’t let them in.
Ben and Tom did really well academically, which I’ve always believed is a great asset. I remember the England scenario that I was involved with [1990-92] and they were all sharp cookies. The more nous you’ve got, the better the rugby player you’ll be.
Simon Hodgkinson [ex-England full-back] and I ran the rugby at Oundle for 17 years [Olver retired in 2017]. I’d be an imposter to claim any credit for the boys’ success.
They were hugely gifted players, and fitted in well. When they had their 21sts, it was like an Oundle reunion; all their mates now follow them avidly around the country, I refer to them affectionately as the Muppet Show. It was a successful side, they lost out narrowly to Bromsgrove in the semi-final of the Daily Mail Cup.
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Olver played hooker for Quins and England (Getty)
What we facilitated at Oundle was the pathway – we accelerated their promotions. Pete Walton and John Fletcher [then England Schools coaches] are mates of mine, I played with them at Northampton, and I said to them, ‘You’ve got to come and look at these two because they’re outstanding’.
Some people think you should do rugby, rugby, rugby for two terms and in the third term do weights and body conditioning for the next rugby season. That is absolute rubbish. Because the more skills you pick up from other sports, the greater your chance of putting together a better sporting portfolio. Hockey, hand-eye coordination. Cricket, hand-eye coordination. Football, seeing the space. There are so many different experiences you can gather.
When you get into the U18s set-up, you’ve got to focus on the thing you want to do. But 12, 13, 14, 15 years of age, you’ve got to let them build up these experiences. It’s called Schema Theory, where you put together a jigsaw puzzle of the various links that will help you.
I’ve got a son, Sam, who played at Doncaster [he’s now a director of Source for Sports]. It’s so rewarding with him and Ben and Tom to see what the family have produced. And their other cousin Patrick Jarrett, my other sister’s son, was at Stoke City. They’ve all played professional sport, which is wonderful for the family. I go to the AJ Bell quite a bit to watch Ben and Tom.”
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The brothers celebrate winning an England U20 Grand Slam in Ireland eight years ago (Getty Images)
THE CURRENT COACH
Pete Anglesea is the breakdown and collisions coach at Sale Sharks
“I first saw Tom and Ben in an internal academy game and the signs were they were a cut above the rest. You could see they were dedicated, their fitness levels, their shape. They were doing weights, they had a little yellow benchpress at home which they trained with.
The way players have been brought up, the way they’ve been developed with their rugby, sometimes players are just ready. And they were both that type. Owen Farrell is another example. People try to take credit for Owen Farrell but because of his father and his growing up, he turned up ready.
But they had never really done any breakdown work. They saw it as an angle they wanted to be good at, so started to do it. It’s a tough job, you’ve got to put yourself in a vulnerable position and be tough enough to get in and steal the ball. They did loads of work just getting off the floor quickly, being strong enough to get in there, that’s how they developed really. Tom and Ben took the initial work on and I’ve helped them along but they are naturals.
They were really good at sevens and played in a tournament in Newcastle. One of them put a cross-field kick in for the other one to score. And they chest-bumped each other!
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‘Sometimes players are just ready. And they were both that type,’ says Pete Anglesea (Getty Images)
Tom is going to be an outstanding captain. He took that role on as one of the leaders [in 2021] and I can see that he will captain England. He’s got it in his nature. He’s very driven, standards have to be high all the time. He really wants to push all the boundaries and everything has to be spot on.
Towards the end of the [2020-21] season, the pair of them were working with the backs to develop their link play. They want to strive and improve, and they like their extras. We have a club with the back-rowers which I run, Turnover Tuesday. We do breakdown drills and even though the lads are good in the breakdown, they continually do the drills, do the extras.
They can play either way off a scrum. It doesn’t really matter. A strength of theirs is decision making. One of the drills we do is just that – can they steal the ball or can they not? If they see that they can’t turn the ball over, maybe because of how a player falls, rather than go in for it and give a penalty away, they’re really good at balancing out and getting in the defensive line and giving us width. When you’ve got two lads like that always giving you width, always off the floor, always giving you line speed, it helps everybody else.
Ben and Tom are polite, respectful lads. We gave Ben time off to travel to the [2019] World Cup to support his brother. Which was outstanding. Ben has been brilliant for us. Absolutely brilliant. The way they are with each other is a credit to them and to their parents.”
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