As a kid, Sunnybank lock Dylan Rowe always wanted to play international rugby.

But he never expected to do it for Croatia.

Rowe recently returned from his seventh Rugby Europe Trophy campaign, a journey that started with a sliding doors moment after a Premier Rugby game in Brisbane almost a decade ago.

“I was on my way over to play in Scotland and after the last game I played at Souths, I was chatting to a mate and somehow we got to talking about my heritage and my grandparents who were born in Croatia,” Rowe told Rugby News this week.

“He said that he had a mate that had played a handful of games for Croatia and that he knew the coach who was from Auckland.

“I got in touch with the coach and mentioned that I was going to be on that side of the world in a few weeks and it all sort of went from there.”

Croatia play in the second division of the Rugby Europe Championships.

World Cup sides like Georgia and Portugal battle out the top division, with Croatia playing the likes of Ukraine, Lithuania and the Czech Republic in the hope of earning promotion to the top division of a tournament Rowe never thought he’d be involved in.