ONLY a few years ago Ben Toolis was playing volleyball for Australia, but the 25-year-old from Brisbane has made his commitment to his motherland clear this week by agreeing a contract extension that will keep him in Edinburgh.

With the club also announcing yesterday that 23-year-old former Auckland Blues playmaker Simon Hickey on a similar two year deal, his decision appears to be a clear vote of confidence in the work being done under new head coach Richard Cockerill.

Nor, with the team he grew up supporting in town, can there be any concern about the commitment he will show against the Wallabies on Saturday because he has already shown his Carluke-born mum Linda how much it means to him to represent her native land when, just down the Eastern seaboard from where he grew up in Brisbane, he helped Scotland beat Australia in Sydney this summer.

She and his dad, who used to take him to watch the Wallabies when he was a child, but also to support Scotland during the pool stages of the 2003 World Cup, will again be in the crowd on Saturday and he takes particular pleasure from what this means to her.

“You know how mums can be all emotional,” he said. “The fact it is the Scotland side as well, her heritage, she is extremely proud and you can tell she loves seeing me out there and it feels nice.”

Perhaps it is reflective of a less sentimental culture, but there was something reminiscent of fellow Australian-born lock Nathan Hines’ attitude in the way Toolis described reaction among his friends to his switch of allegiance. Hines also represented the British & Irish Lions and tended to dismiss questions about any split loyalties by saying his were to whoever his comrades were on the field of play.

For all that Toolis grew up seeking to model himself on John Eales, a product of the same high school and perhaps the Wallabies’ greatest ever player who played in both their World Cup winning teams and captained them to the second of them in 1999, it seems that Hines’ successor in the Scottish second-row has encountered something similar.

“I had a lot of friends who came down to that game (in Sydney) and they had their Wallaby shirts on and Scottish scarves,” he said.

“There was a bit of confusion at the end when we won and they were celebrating. My brother was there with his Scotland scarf on and he didn’t have his Aussie kit on. He is fully supporting Scotland.”

Toolis knows that he will be up against others who number among his old friends on Saturday, but again there is only a sense of camaraderie, rather than any extra edge as he anticipates going up against them.

“I played with (Wallabies backs) Samu Kerevi and Junior Rasolea a lot at and (flanker) Sean McMahon, he was at (Brisbane club) GPS as well. I was in the Australian academy with him 18,19. We are good mates,” he said.

Toolis knows they are likely to be even more difficult opponents than in the summer, but has confidence in his new compatriots.

“I watch a lot of their games and through the Rugby Championship they seemed to be a lot more organised in defence and their structure was a lot better and they beat New Zealand.”