Street takes sides about royal foreigners (9)

I believe the answer is:

strangers

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'foreigners' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'street takes sides about royal' is the wordplay.
'takes sides' means to remove the middle letters (I've seen 'taking sides' mean this (only letters at the sides)).
'about royal' becomes 'rangers' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'street' with its centre taken out is 'st'.
'st'+'rangers'='STRANGERS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for strangers that I've seen before include "People one doesn't know" , "Foreigners" , "Outsiders" , "Aliens" , "Those we have not met" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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