Just 85 days separate the births of Sam Costelow and Ioan Lloyd.
At times, the fact that Lloyd, like Costelow, is only 22 years old and is in fact a little younger than his future Scarlets team-mate can be easy to forget. Lloyd has perhaps been exposed to a little more in the early stages of his fledgling career than Costelow, after all.
By the time Costelow arrived in Llanelli back in 2020, Lloyd had already made 17 appearances in the Gallagher Premiership for Bristol Bears. A little later on in the same the year, as Costelow was eased into life in west Wales, Lloyd was winning a couple of caps for Wales.
The future seemed very bright for the Cardiff-born youngster.
However, as the years have gone by, Lloyd hasn't been able to break back into the Welsh set-up. He has, at times, been a victim of his own versatility as he tries to nail down a long-term position.
Read more: Scarlets 'wouldn't have signed' Ioan Lloyd if they didn't back Wales return ambition
Bristol coach Pat Lam was more than aware of that, saying: "Everyone's worried that he's got to find a position.
"He's 20-years-old. It's about building him as a rugby player so when he gets into finding the position he wants to play, he'll be better for it.
"He's a project. I played him out of school on the wing. He's young and there's a lot of expectation.
"He came into the Wales team possibly too early but the good thing to come from that is that me and Wayne (Pivac) stayed in good contact as a project with how we work him."
Of course, Pivac has gone - with Warren Gatland now back in charge - but there's no indication that a recall is coming anytime soon.
Capable of playing in virtually every position across the backline, it had felt like the 2022/23 season would be the coming of age for a player who, by his own coach's admission, had shown moments of world-class talent and inconsistency.
Lam said he would focus largely on a position of inside centre - the position Lam claimed Lloyd wants to play - but injuries and illness disrupted his season from the start, making it hard to ever really get going.
Meanwhile, Costelow has started to thrive after being afforded time to develop following his move from Leicester Tigers.
The reward has been some Welsh caps of his own last year and the starting jersey under Dwayne Peel. And it is that perhaps the blueprint that the west Walians will employ with Lloyd when he arrives in Llanelli next season.
Leicester were careful not to rush Costelow in the early stages of his career, with the Scarlets carrying on in the same vein. At the time, they made it clear that Costelow wouldn't be thrown in too soon - which would have been a considerable danger for a player who, even at that time, had captured the imagination with some stunning moments for the U20s.
Speaking about the development of Costelow last week, current Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan, who coached the fly-half at the Scarlets, said: “I worked with Sam at the Scarlets for three years.
"Year one he didn’t play too much, year two he was drip fed. You look at him now and he is ripping up trees.
“That process was done superbly well for Sam. Too many bad experiences for a young ten don’t help. That is one thing I do know.”
Flanagan added this week: "If you just look at how comfortable he now is in the 10 jersey at the Scarlets, he's been managed really well. But part of that is the players around him.
"Being in day-to-day training with Jon Fox (Jonathan Davies), Scott Williams, Steff Hughes - being around those players daily to educate him along the journey. He's taken his chance."
It's clear how the Scarlets managed expectation and hype around Costelow. In fairness to Bristol, they've not actively rushed Lloyd all that much. Granted, he's come straight from school and played around 70-odd games for the club so far in a variety of different positions, but Lam has always spoken about taking their time with Lloyd.
Unfortunately for Lam and Bristol, that time is coming to an end now as Lloyd heads back to Wales in order to stay eligible for Wales. And while there are crucial differences between Costelow and Lloyd, the fact that Peel sees Lloyd as a fly-half means there's also some similarities.
The hope now will be that the west Walians do a similar job in developing Lloyd at the right pace like they did with Costelow.
Crucially, on the pitch, the style of rugby Peel is playing will likely suit the talents of Lloyd. One of the Scarlets' biggest strengths at the moment is the detail in early phases that allow them to get their best players in the right places. You can read more about that here.
That might be getting scrum-half Gareth Davies a touch as a second or third receiver in order to create an opportunity as a running threat, as demonstrated by Jonathan Davies' try against Bayonne earlier this season, or bringing wing Steff Evans into a first-receiver role to create mismatches.
Those little nuances, particularly the second one, also allow whoever is fly-half - be it Costelow now or Lloyd in the future - to roam more freely and explore different areas of the pitch to attack.
In the build-up to Evans' try in the win over the Sharks recently, the wing once again pops up at first-receiver to act as distributor from a scrum - with Costelow pushing across from fly-half to become an out-the-back option behind centre Johnny Williams.
On this occasion, they opt for a tunnel ball in front of Costelow and behind Joe Roberts to get full-back Tom Rogers around the edge, leading to a line-break off first-phase. However, on another occasion, they could use Costelow as a running threat if the defence had drifted onto Rogers.
That is certainly an area of the game where Lloyd's running threat could be used to great effect, as the Scarlets only know too well. Last year, Lloyd showed off his footwork and stunning lateral movement to drift outside of Rhys Patchell as he received the ball before stepping inside Scott Williams to set up Semi Radradra's opening score.
Like Costelow, Lloyd has the game-breaking abilities to solve problems on the fly and improvise. Both on and off the pitch, it appears there's a blueprint for Lloyd to be a success at Parc y Scarlets.
The man currently wearing the 10 jersey that Lloyd will compete for next year is proof of that.
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