THEY are the Wallabies' very own foreign legion - the 10 members of the Grand Slam touring party born overseas.
Australia's reputation as the land of opportunity can be seen in the faces of the nine players who emigrated here with their families when they were kids and have graduated to proudly wear the green and gold.
And a lot of Australia's gains have come at the expense of arch-rivals New Zealand, where rugby talent is fast replacing wool as their top export item. "Everyone's different, we all come from different backgrounds,'' said head coach Robbie Deans, one of the six tourists born in the Shaky Isles. "Where the players were born is not relevant.''
New halfback Richard Kingi said the best thing he has ever done was move from Bay Of Plenty to Queensland when he was 15.
"I'm an Aussie now, I feel welcome and accepted as an Australian,'' the 21-year-old said.
Kingi has already played for Australia against his former homeland at the Under-21 World Cup and in sevens and suffered no feelings of divided loyalties. Winger Digby Ioane moved from New Zealand to Melbourne when he was 12 months old and second-rower Dean Mumm was three when his family moved.
While Mumm's grandfather Bill was an All Black, he is a Wallaby and his dad John is on the ARU board.
"Pretty much all my family is still over there. It's a reasonably strong affiliation but I consider myself very much an Aussie,'' Mumm said.
"I know the words of the Kiwi anthem but I'm never going to sing it - the Aussie one means a lot more.''
Test No.9 Will Genia started playing rugby when he moved from Papua New Guinea aged 12 to be a boarder at Brisbane Boys College.
He regularly travels back to PNG to visit his family after the Super 14 and at Christmas.
"I'm never going to forget where I came from but I definitely see myself as a Queenslander and an Aussie,'' he said.
Hooker Stephen Moore was born in Saudi Arabia while his Irish parents were working there. The family returned to Ireland until Stephen was five and they emigrated to start a new life in Central Queensland.
