The directionality of tensile behaviour in cold rolled AA5005 (similar to1%Mg)) and AA5182 (similar to5%Mg) alloys has been investigated. Both materials initially had a 'cube' texture, that in the AA5005 being significantly stronger. At rolling strains up to 0.5, the cube texture remained dominant in both alloys. In the AA5005 there was a marked dependence of mechanical behaviour on the degree of prior rolling strain and on the direction of the tensile axis relative to the rolling direction. Part of the directionality was due to crystallographic texture effects, notably the contribution to work hardening- and so elongation- from the change in preferred orientation occurring in tension at 45degrees to the rolling direction. There was also a significant difference in plastic behaviour between tension at 0degrees and 90degrees to the rolling direction, caused by the directionality in deformation substructure generated during the rolling which led to characteristic strain path change effects. Static recovery was found to affect the work hardening and ductility of the samples, and this is thought to be due to substructural condensation. The overall behaviour of AA5005 was quite similar to that reported for commercial purity AA1200. However, in AA5182, such strain path effects were not observed for the pre-strains investigated. This is due to the lack of a well developed aligned substructure in this material caused by the effect of magnesium solute on dynamic recovery.