Would you have picked Finlay Bealham to be three wins away from lifting the Rugby World Cup when he was playing junior rugby in Canberra and couldn't get a start at the ACT Brumbies?
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How about Mack Hansen, who was passed over by five Australian Super Rugby clubs before flying to Connacht for an opportunity abroad? Or Tyrel Lomax, the All Blacks prop who slipped through the cracks after growing up in Canberra?
If you were wondering who you should be cheering for in France after the Wallabies were booked on the first flight home, Sunday morning's quarter-final between Ireland and New Zealand might give you the answer. Three Canberra-born players will be in action at Stade de France, with Hansen and Bealham teaming up for Ireland against Lomax and the All Blacks.
You'd be forgiven for thinking Bealham - who grew up winning junior grand finals at Canberra Stadium - was a teenage prodigy who somehow fell through Australian rugby's grasp, given he has become a mainstay in the front-row rotation for the world's top ranked team.
"To be honest, he wasn't," Bealham's former junior teammate Reinhold Kamilo said with a grin.
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The St Edmund's College graduate, now a 32-year-old prop at Connacht, was knocked back by the Brumbies academy and spent time plugging away at tighthead for Tuggeranong's second grade team.
Bealham moved to Ireland on a mission to play professional rugby, conceding the dream seemed a bit harder to achieve in Australia.
Given his maternal grandmother Sarah hailed from Enniskillen, Bealham and his father Roy put together a highlight reel and sent it to then IRFU high performance manager Allen Clarke, and then-Irish under 20s coach Mike Ruddock.
It was enough to earn a trial with the Belfast Harlequins. Appearances at the under 20s Six Nations and the junior world championships in 2011 would follow before Connacht came calling.
"I moved over originally when I was 18, 19 years of age having a dream of playing professional rugby and I moved over because the dream seemed a bit harder where I was in Australia," Bealham said last week.
![Finlay Bealham and Mack Hansen are teaming up for Ireland against All Black Tyrel Lomax in the World Cup. Picture Getty Images Finlay Bealham and Mack Hansen are teaming up for Ireland against All Black Tyrel Lomax in the World Cup. Picture Getty Images](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/3c02d9a9-323f-4519-b67e-34a6b3999c16.png/r0_88_1717_1126_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I was really tight with my nana at the time. She used to ring me every day when I was in Galway and I remember one time I forgot to bring my phone to training and she ended up calling me like 70 times, it was something crazy, you wouldn't believe it.
"I suppose to represent my nana, who I was always close with growing up, representing all them, would I have thought I'd be here a good few years later at a World Cup? It's pretty surreal.
"Every time I get to wear the jersey, every time I sing the anthem, I always think of my family and everyone who sacrificed for me to get to where I'm at."
Kamilo says few could have expected Bealham's rise to the top of world rugby. Those who know Hansen could tell a similar story.
Hansen was struggling to lock down a starting spot for the Brumbies - but virtually every time he got a shot he made it count, like when he nailed a winning penalty against Queensland and scored three tries against the NSW Waratahs.
![Finlay Bealham won junior premierships at St Edmund's. Finlay Bealham won junior premierships at St Edmund's.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/cf304763-42f1-464c-89f6-ea5da37a46a2.jpg/r0_98_2331_1409_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Even so, there was no room in Super Rugby for the now 25-year-old flyer who has quickly emerged as a fan favourite in Ireland.
Hansen has overcome a calf injury to take his place on the wing this weekend as Ireland chase their first semi-final appearance in the World Cup's 36-year history.
"He obviously had a few things to do at the start of the week, but he's coming good and everyone is very confident he's going to be fine for the game," Ireland coach Andy Farrell said.
At 27, Lomax has now made 29 Test appearances for the All Blacks having represented Australia at under 20s level.
The son of former Canberra Raiders hardman John Lomax was destined to wear Wallabies gold. He had a Super Rugby contract as a teenager and looked a Test prop in waiting.
![All Black Tyrel Lomax. Picture by Getty Images All Black Tyrel Lomax. Picture by Getty Images](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/36vwtM5n3dmMVgNPycRBEHz/e2a3c3b7-6745-4983-98a3-68178597f848.jpg/r0_0_5032_2829_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Stuck behind a star-studded front-row contingent in Canberra, Lomax moved to Melbourne before flying across the Tasman to chase an All Blacks jersey. Now he finds himself in a quarter-final which could so easily be a World Cup final.
"This team is ready," All Blacks coach Ian Foster said. "If you look at this year, the whole thing is about getting ready for a World Cup and making sure we're primed to perform at this stage of the tournament.
"We're excited by the challenge, we know how good Ireland are, and they deserve all the plaudits they get, but play-off rugby is about who's best on the day."
You'd have found long odds for three Canberra products to be playing in a World Cup quarter-final - even longer if you were told the Wallabies were no longer in contention.
You wonder what might have been if they were wearing gold.
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