JAMES O'Connor, destined to become the second-youngest Wallaby, rejected approaches from New Zealand and South Africa to realise his dream of playing for Australia.

The Australian-born O'Connor, 18, who lived in New Zealand as a child, was eligible to play for all three SANZAR countries because his parents are Kiwis and his grandparents South African.

"I always wanted to play for the Wallabies," O'Connor said. "It wasn't a hard decision.

"There was a little bit of talk with the other countries, but as soon as I got the call yesterday it wasn't much of a decision."

While all three countries had been chasing O'Connor, no one could find him on Monday to tell him he had been selected in the Wallabies squad for the spring tour.

O'Connor was on holidays on Stradbroke Island, near Brisbane, with some mates, oblivious to frantic attempts to tell him he had to fly to Sydney for yesterday's squad announcement.

"My mate got a phone call from my Mum saying I had to get on a flight and go on the spring tour," O'Connor said.

"At first I thought it was a joke, like a gee-up by one of the boys. I was overwhelmed. I had three hours to get to the plane and I'm here. Dream come true."

O'Connor, who has only played four Super 14 games for Western Force, was not expecting a call-up to the national squad so soon.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...015651,00.html