‘I know what is being said about me, but I don’t care. I’m content’
Ben Te’o shrugs off his injury-plagued club record as he gears up for shot at World Cup glory
Arelaxed Ben Te’o cracks a beaming grin before adopting a tone of mock-earnestness. “I’m very happy,” he says, speaking slowly while pondering the point he has reached in his fascinating career. “I’m a happy guy. I’m quite content with what I’ve achieved – and that’s not me saying, ‘I’ve achieved it all, now I can sit back’.
“There are certain things I wanted in my career and I’ve got a few of them. I’m lucky. I’m 32 now, I’m still fit and healthy. That’s a bonus.”
Barring injury or a surprise exclusion, Eddie Jones will take Te’o to the World Cup as part of his 31-man squad. The hefty, hardrunning centre has been something of a safety blanket for the England head coach over the past three years. When fit, Te’o has featured as an imposing gain-line general who has experienced some
of the most intense occasions in either code.
An appearance for Samoa at the 2008 rugby league World Cup preceded State of Origin outings for Queensland. In 2017, three years after returning to the 15-a-side arena, he became a British and Irish Lion.
“If I retire tomorrow, I’ll be happy and grateful. We can sometimes think about what didn’t go right, whether you bombed out of a tournament or you lost a final. I’ve had things like that, but overall it’s been a great ride. I hope it goes on a bit longer but I’m content.”
Te’o would travel as an unattached player, his lucrative three-year contract with Worcester Warriors having expired. It does not sound as if he will miss what he calls the “pushing and pulling” of England’s unavoidable clubagainst-country politics.
Indeed, he feels as though this is the first proper pre-season he has enjoyed since trading Leinster for Sixways in 2016.
“It’s been an… interesting journey,” says Te’o of an injuryplagued, 36-match stint with
‘I would have loved to have played more but injuries come at different times. I can’t change it’
Worcester. The pause seems suspiciously pregnant.
“I think I learnt a lot about sporting organisations. It’s not a secret that the club has been through a lot of change, whether that is from board or owners or coaches. The personnel kept ticking over and over.
“I would have loved to have played more games but injuries come around at different times. I’d be out injured and then I’d come back and be away on England duty. It was different.
“I can’t change it. If I was fit, I’d play. If I was not fit, I wouldn’t play. If I got fit and it was the autumn, it was time to go [to England]. I’d come back and next minute you’re gone because it’s the Six Nations. People feel like they haven’t seen you in a few months and they haven’t. That’s the way it works.”
Continually getting picked by Jones and accumulating 18 England caps has hardly been Te’o’s fault, and he rightly points out that his weighty pay packet – £1.125million over three seasons – was offset by around £300,000 in credits returned to Warriors.
“There are agreements between the RFU and [Premiership Rugby]. There is compensation there, which is what it’s all for. The fan doesn’t know that. They just think, ‘Where’s he gone? We’re getting nothing from him’. That’s the way it works.”
Has Te’o needed resilience to deal with criticism of his time in the Premiership? Another shrug, followed by another smile.
“Yeah,” he says. “But I think I’ve always had that. So, it never bothered me, because all I can do is what I can do. If I’m fit, I’ll try to play my best. If I’m not fit, I’ll rehab the best I can.
“I can’t magically get right or just walk out of England camp and go to play for Worcester. There are ways to go about it. I’m pretty thick-skinned. I know what’s being said on the outside but it doesn’t bother me.”
Here is the crux. Te’o is a popular member of the England squad, with a dry sense of humour, and is a hard-edged professional. He has earned respect. External opinions do not bother him, and do not appear to perturb England squad-mates either.
Jones was a fan, but did not guarantee anything when the pair chatted before Te’o crossed the Irish Sea. “He said, ‘If you sign for an English club, I’ll take a look at you’ – that’s it,” says Auckland-born Te’o, who qualifies to play for England via his mother, Linda.
Instant selection to tour Australia, before he had represented Worcester, might have suggested otherwise. But Te’o was not selected to play, instead using it as a chance to introduce himself while making the “transition” to a new environment, before a Test debut five months later.
That might all sound dispassionate and devoid of emotion, as though the English national team could be any club set-up for which Te’o had signed.
He does not deny the World Cup has been a huge motivation. Again, though, there were no assurances.
“I knew where it was. But it was never like, ‘I’m going there’. It was more, ‘I’d love to go’. And you never know. If you get in the team and you don’t play well you might never play in the jersey again.”
Such a matter-of-fact, phlegmatic mindset clearly works for Te’o, while few can question his performances.
Te’o wants to bring out the best in England’s squad on the way to the World Cup, which will likely be his international farewell. There are rumours of big-money offers from Japan and Australia after the tournament. He has a poker face.
“Now I’m here, there’s just one focus – going to Japan,” Te’o says. “Out there, it’ll be about the tournament. Once that’s done, I can be like, ‘OK, where am I at now? Where’s my head? Where’s my hunger? What’s going to make me happy for the next few years?’” One last grin.
“I don’t even know yet.”