Tiger joy after day pain-free
BEN TE’o has spoken for the first time about the altercation with Mike Brown which cost the England pair their Rugby World Cup chances.
Eddie Jones omitted both men from his squad – which went on
to reach
the final last November in Japan – following an incident at the pre-tournament training camp in northern Italy.
What took place has long been shrouded in mystery, with Te’o tight-lipped at the time and Brown saying only: “When the details come out, people will know how everyone in that situation handled themselves.”
But now Te’o, 32, has broken his silence in conversation with Irish legend Brian O’Driscoll, as part of the BT Sport series Lions Call.
Asked by O’Driscoll how disappointed he was not to go to the World Cup, the Lions centre said: “Yeah, it was an interesting one. There was a bonding session and an incident that happened.
“We actually got along quite fine but sometimes things happen when guys have a few too many drinks.
“To be honest, I don’t think it was that big of a deal.
“And when I woke up in the morning I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. But obviously for some people, maybe a leadership group or something along those lines, maybe it was a big deal to them?
“Eddie rang me up and said he wasn’t going to take me to the
World Cup. He was pretty upset with me.
“I said, ‘OK, no worries’.
“At that stage I was already packing up my house and moving my family, because they were going to come back here to Australia while I was going to be at the World Cup in Japan.
“I was like, ‘Oh well, that was an interesting end to the last three and a half years that I’ve put in’.”
Te’o had been capped 18 times by Jones but his England career ended there and then.
He left Worcester first for Toulon, then a spell with Japanese Super Rugby franchise Sunwolves, before returning to rugby league at the Brisbane Broncos (below).
Asked if he and Brown had since buried the hatchet, Te’o replied: “We haven’t yet, we haven’t crossed paths.”
The New Zealand-born midfielder is the second crosscode star to have an unhappy World Cup experience with England following that of Te’o’s former housemate Sam Burgess. At least Burgess made it to the 2015 tournament – but then England’s disastrous campaign and the flak that Slammin’ Sam copped led him to cut short his stay in the union game and return to Australia’s NRL. He has since retired.
“Unfortunately it didn’t pan out for him,” said Te’o. “I was quite sad to see him leave because I know that he had a lot more in him.
“I knew Sam had a lot more growth and he could have been one of the great players that England had.”
With one year until the British & Irish Lions tour South Africa in 2021, watch BT Sport’s new series ‘Lions Call’ with Brian O’Driscoll on the BT Sport YouTube channel youtube.com/btsport