The 27-year-old Glasgow centre has been handed the captaincy ahead of the autumn Tests against Fiji, South Africa, Portugal and Australia, with his 23-year-old sibling, who joined Edinburgh this summer, in line to make his debut in one of those matches next month.

The Australia-born pair are eligible for Scotland through their Greenock-born grandmother, Jacqueline Thomson, and Sione, who has won 27 caps since his debut three years ago, feels “blessed” that such a scenario has come to fruition.