All his life, John Devine has had tough acts to follow, though he's making a decent name for himself on his own terms.
His father Mike is a former Connacht wing, as well as an ex-Offaly footballer, while the Devine surname will also be familiar to those who followed the U20 Six Nations 12 months ago.
John's older brother Matthew was a key member of the 2022 vintage, scoring four tries in five games, helping Ireland to a Grand Slam along the way.
With just under two years separating the two of them, their lives have been one continuous competiton.
"I remember one day we raced each other to see how fast we could eat our dinner, and then the next day we raced to see how slow we could eat our dinner," John says, recalling the sibling rivalry.
"We were there at the table for about half an hour eating, we were about 12! That was kind of the system we had growing up, and it'll go on forever, because we live with each other in Galway in college."
The 19-year-old is quick to bring his older brother down a peg or two: "It's not that hard when he's not great himself," he laughs, when asked about following his Matthew's footsteps as an U20 international.
But when the joking is put to one side, he's quick to highlight the impact it's had on his development.
"To be fair to Matthew, since he was the only Connacht player last year, it was a good feat or him to get here. I was at home happy for him, but also thinking at the back of my mind, 'I have to get here next year'. Thankfully I did, and I got my chance last week [v Wales].
"Since we came from our club, seeing all of the school lads here is kind of a big feat for us club lads, and seeing Matthew doing it last year gave me a drive to do it this year."
The Ballinasloe native started at inside centre in last week's opening win against Wales at Colwyn Bay, and is part of an interesting age group whose rugby development would have been heavily impacted by Covid-19 restrictions.
Having won a Connacht schools senior cup in 2020 - alongside Matthew - just before the first lockdown in 2020, various restrictions, and a shoulder injury prevented him from getting any consistent rugby during his final two years in school.
But while he missed out on a lot of rugby in formative teenage years, he says that sibling rivalry ensured he wasn't going to drift away from rugby.
"I definitely think it [lockdown] was a help. For the first few weeks of Covid you were getting up late and you didn't know what was happening but as soon as the guidelines set in I found that I might as well make a good go of it.
"We live beside a GAA pitch in Ballinasloe and there was no sport being played there so we hopped over the wall and practiced our skills for hours.
"Thankfully our school gave us a bit of gym equipment so we had that out the back every day, so Matthew and I kind of held each other to a standard. If one lad was sitting inside the other would come and tell him to get up and outside and onto the pitch to practice the skills so it probably was good for me.
"I took my opportunity where others might have given up a bit."
Ireland survived a difficult first half to make a bonus point start to their title defence, winning 44-27 against a plucky Welsh side.
And Devine says after feeling slightly overawed by the occasion, they settled into the game.
"I was really excited to get my first game for the 20s under my belt. It was a good ground and the Welsh fans made it a great experience, especially during the national anthem with how loud they got. There were only 4,000-5,000 there and I could barely hear myself think out in the centre. I could only imagine what it must have been like the next day in Cardiff with the roof closed.
"The stuck to their gameplan in trying to rattle us. It probably looked like we were rattled but we knew that we had to settle in until halftime and then re-set. Thankfully we did. They are a good side and they did make it tough.
"When we got in at halftime Richie [Murphy] said they have played a lot of their game and we haven’t played rugby at all. We took solace in that. We broke out in the second half and just played out own game," he added.
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