The Wallace clan yesterday moved a step closer to becoming the first threesome of brothers to play simultaneously for Ireland in 112 years. Should it come to pass on the forthcoming tour of South Africa, they will emulate Daniel, JF and JP Ross when they played in the Irish back-line against Scotland in Raeburn Place on February 20th, 1886. Ironically, it would also be the first time for Richie, Paul and David Wallace to play together.

The age discrepancy - Richie is 30, Paul 26 and the uncapped David is 21 - along with attending different schools in Limerick and Cork during their formative years, and most of all the life of modern-day professionals, has meant that the youngest of the trio has only ever played with either of his Saracens-based elder brothers once before, in a Munster Senior Cup tie for Garryowen two years ago.

Despite the ravages of last season's Lions' tour and no respite for either Saracens or Ireland this season, the tireless Paul admitted yesterday that the carrot of playing alongside his brothers was "one of the main reasons why I made myself available this summer."

"It's great that David got selected for it as well," added the Lions' tight-head, who admitted that David's reputation as the best of the three of them - guaranteed to annoy him no end - is not something that he can verify first hand. "I rarely get the chance to see him play. I think I've seen him play twice."

The Saracens pair heard the news at training yesterday which, along with Paddy Johns' captaincy, made for a feel-good day all-round in advance of tonight's league game at Harlequins. Somewhere along the way, they hope to link up at home with parents Michael (who mixed a little rugby at Cobh Pirates and London Irish with his primary sporting passion of sailing) and Greta for a deserving celebration.

They deserve one. "It's fantastic, the thought of all three of us going on tour together," declared Richie. "I don't know if it's ever happened before but that's not the point. To be going with your two brothers makes it a bit special. It would be great if we ended up playing in the same game too; fingers crossed. That's a real motivational factor."

Unlike the Ross trio, who were all backs, or most of the 10 sets of three brothers who have played for Ireland, the Wallaces are unusual in being made up of a winger, wingforward and prop - the whole gamut really.

"It's very odd," accepts Richie. "I can't explain it. Paul used to be the quickest to the dinner table but then he lost his speed, perhaps because he ate too much. Davey's like a cross between the two of us, except that he's a couple of inches taller than us."

In typically laid-back fashion, the youngest sibling did not have his ears glued to the car radio and heard news of his selection via a phone call from a friend while driving with his Garryowen team-mate Barry Everitt to Nenagh. "Obviously I'm delighted. I didn't want to get my hopes up so I wasn't thinking about it. You'd be hoping and end up disappointed. I'm trying to take it pretty coolly."

It completes a roller-coaster year for the 21-year-old back-rower. One of the hits on last summer's development tour, when he featured in all seven games, his game went off the boil like so many others at the start of the season and he was dropped by Munster.

It was a long climb back with Garryowen, for whom he scored 10 tries in 13 games at number eight, eventually propelling him to the Ireland A side as first an open-side flanker and then a number eight against France and Wales, before he was demoted to the under-21s as a number seven. That may partly have been to boost the latter's Triple Crown bid against England, to which young Wallace's man-of-the-match performance performance duly contributed.

"I've had my ups and downs this season," admits David, who concurs with the commonly held view that his best long-term position is as an open-side flanker, and he was pleased to hear that was the position which the Irish management had in mind for him on this tour.

There's a fourth rugby-playing brother as well: the eldest, Henry, made his AIL debut for Wanderers this season. While the youngest sibling's domestic season is already over, the Saracens duo have still three highly charged league games (the last of them on May 14th, 10 days before departure to South Africa) to negotiate plus the May 9th Pilkington Cup final.

But they reckon it's probably as well to begin the tour soon afterwards, for it affords a longer break before the start of pre-season training. "I'm fairly tired," admitted Paul, "but I'll probably get a bit of a break before the tour and at the start of it."

Besides, he could have one powerful incentive.