I am sorry, but I could not resist.  As an individual from the country that gets accused of stealing overseas born players by the truck load, I did find it interesting to look at this photo from an article on the Foxsports website.

Have a look for yourself.  See if you can perceive what I mean…

If I am not mistaken, every person in this photo is born out of Australia.

You don’t believe me?… Let’s start from left to right and see where it ends…

Dean Mumm – New Zealand… a couple of seasons ago when he was interviewed after a game, he even talked about his NZ passport!

Digby Ioane – New Zealand… Oh Yeah, and the first Samoan to play for the Wallabies.  ”How was he born in NZ then,” says the English supporter?

Robbie Deans – Need I say more.  Okay, I will sing then… “Give it a boot Robbie, Give it a Boot.  When the boots on Robbie, got the boots on, boot it Robbie” [or words to that effect]!

Quade Cooper – New Zealand.

Stephen Moore – Ireland, I believe, with even the Irish officials apparently chasing him some time ago.

David Pocock – Zimbabwe, but left with his family for obvious reasons.

Pek Cowan – New Zealand.

Richard Kingi – New Zealand.

Will Genia – Papua New Guinea.  His Father is/ was a minister in the Government, I believe.

As the years go by, expect Australia to look even more like a transplanted team from New Zealand, as the huge ex-pat population once again shows the huge natural rugby talent from Aotearoa!

This will seemingly only increase if Australia gets the next team into what will be the expanded Super 15 competition, as they look for talent where they have none, and where young kiwi players, who have not cracked the big time, see this as an opportunity to make it onto the world stage… and who can blame them, look at the examples around the rest of the world… Leslie Brothers and Rikki Flutey to name a few!

One can only wonder what this team will look like in 10-15 years time!

Maybe, just maybe, we even might want to support the Wallabies… might even be able to call them the All Golds!

Okay, that might be a step too far… but they have stolen far more before!

Until Next Time

I am Jonny King