To honour the Wallabies wearing the First Nations jersey against Argentina, Rugby.com.au has taken a look back at the incredible efforts by First Nations Wallabies - looking at the Fainga'a twins.
Inseparable for much of their lives it was no surprise that it took Anthony Fainga’a just 56 days to match his twin brother Saia in winning a first Test cap for Australia.
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Dreadlocked Saia beat his brother into the world by five minutes and into an international rugby career by five Tests.
The boys would remain inseparable as they attended St. Edmund’s College in Canberra where both played 1st XV rugby, were selected in the Australian Schools team of 2004, and in the Saia-captained World Championship-winning Australian U19s in 2006.
Saia signed his first Super Rugby contract with the ACT Brumbies in 2006 but the boys upped and left the nation’s capital for the Queensland Reds in 2009, lured north by their former national U19s mentor and then Reds’ coach Phil Mooney.
After Saia nailed down the starting No. 2 jumper for the 2010 Super Rugby season he was rewarded with a Test debut, against Fiji in Canberra.
Fainga’a won his first Test cap off the bench shortly afterwards against New Zealand as the pair would start together in the second Test.
It would mark the first set of twins to start a Test for the Wallabies since Mark and Glen Ella in 1983, along with two of a record four Indigenous players who featured in the Wallaby match day 23 alongside Kurtley Beale and Matt Hodgson.
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They'd featured strongly for the Reds in their maiden Super Rugby title in 2011 before he went on to win a place in the Wallabies’ Rugby World Cup squad before both being selected for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Anthony would go on to play each of the opening nine Tests during 2012 only to be overlooked throughout the end-of-season Spring Tour.
Meanwhile, his brother would eventually return to the side in 2013, mainly from the bench, playing in 11 out of 13 Tests.
The following year, Fainga’a was recalled to win a first run-on Test start in four years - against South Africa in Cape Town - as he became the fifth Wallaby to wear the jinxed No. 2 jersey in just eight internationals in his final year in gold.
