AUSTIN, Texas — The bright lights of the Moody Center have seen their fair share of drama, but few stories during Gambler Days on Saturday night carried the same weight as the one playing out inside the Missouri Thunder locker room. For the first time in their professional bull riding careers, brothers Boston and Macaulie Leather suited up on the same PBR team.

It wasn’t long ago the pair were chasing calves and daydreaming about bulls in their hometown of Calliope, Queensland, Australia. Now, halfway across the world, they have found themselves teammates in the world’s toughest eight seconds.

Life in the Leather household was anything but quiet. With 13 kids under one roof — eight sisters and five brothers — Boston and Macaulie never bothered scrapping with each other. Outnumbered from the start, the brothers saved their fight for the arena.

That didn’t stop the playful ribbing. “He’d pretend he was a jockey and wear purple [riding britches] and ride his pony around,” Boston recalled. When asked if the outfit included tall boots, Macaulie shook his head sheepishly.

The reunion wasn’t planned far in advance. After being traded from the Texas Rattlers to the Missouri Thunder last week, Macaulie didn’t tell his brother about the move until the plans to fly to the states were already in motion. “When I rang him to ask if he could pick me up from the airport at two in the morning. I told him,” Macaulie said.

Boston’s reaction was near speechlessness: “Really?!" he said.

Getting back to the United States in time to make his debut was its own challenge.

Macaulie was scheduled to arrive in Dallas on Wednesday but faced a string of setbacks — delays and cancellations in Sydney, then another in Los Angeles, where he wasn’t even originally scheduled to connect. After the detours, he finally landed in Dallas at 2:30 a.m. the day Gambler Days was set to buck out of the chutes in Austin.

Boston was there waiting to pick him up — just a short while before Macaulie would make his debut in camo, yellow and red.

When the gates cracked Saturday night, the Aussie brothers’ story got its first chapter in the arena. Macaulie delivered in his debut, covering Washita Red for 83.25 points. Boston, meanwhile, wasn’t as fortunate, tossed in 2.01 seconds by Buck Nasty.

Their teammates split the difference: Paulo Eduardo Rossetto covered Soul Man for 85.25, while Jett Harkins was bucked off Big Mac and Andrew Alvidrez came down early on The Paint. Missouri finished the night 2-for-5.

For the Leathers, though, the scoreboard told only part of the story. Drafted by the Texas Rattlers in his first PBR Teams season, Macaulie now finds himself not only on new dirt, but sharing a locker room with someone who walks like him, talks like him and has the same name stitched across his jersey. If you’re scanning Missouri’s day sheet and think you’re seeing double, it’s no typo — the Aussies have doubled up.

From a noisy household of 13 kids in Queensland, Australia, to the brightest stage in bull riding, the brothers’ journey has been anything but simple. After trades, canceled flights, standby lists and a 2:30 a.m. airport pickup, Saturday night in Austin marked the beginning of the Leathers’ run as Missouri’s Thunder down under.

Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media