Mercenary Te’o puts cash before country
BEN TE’O’S decision to turn his back on England during the World Cup by joining Toulon after being axed from Eddie Jones’ final 31man squad has not endeared him to many Red Rose fans.
Among Te’o’s leading critics has been the former Harlequins, England and Lions wing, Ugo Monye, who said his decision “stinks”.
However, if England, and their head coach, had spent any time looking into Te’o’s background it would very soon have become apparent that he did not stay anywhere for very long – and therefore that he might not have been the right fit for the national squad.
Ben Te’o was born in Auckland to a Samoan father and English mother and played for the New Zealand U16 Rugby League side as well as the Junior Kiwis before moving to Australia at the age of 17, where he secured an NRL contract with the Wests Tigers.
He then played for Samoa in the 2008 Rugby League World Cup before joining the Brisbane Broncos (2009-2012). After that he joined the South Sydney Rabbitohs and played alongside Sam Burgess in the team that won the 2014 NRL Grand Final. He also represented Queensland.
So, by the age of 21 he had played Rugby League for two countries, and by the time he was 26 had played for three clubs in the NRL.
His next move in 2014 was to code-hop and join Leinster. Just over a year later he was on the radar of England boss Jones, and made the short journey to the Premiership, signing for Worcester.
That made it five pro clubs, in two codes, in four countries, by the age of 28. Yet Jones, in search of a muscular inside-centre replacement for the injured Manu Tuilagi, wasted little time in drafting him into the England squad ahead of home-grown centres like Ollie Devoto and Billy Twelvetrees.
He went on the 2016 tour of Australia, and then made his debut in the 2017 Six Nations, when he scored on debut as a replacement against France. The exposure helped him to win a place on the 2017 Lions tour squad to New Zealand, and he went on to win 16 England caps overall.
Now, rather than remain on stand-by – and a likely call-up in the event of Tuilagi’s tournament being cut short – Te’o opted for a short-term Top 14 contract with Toulon, before taking up a contract with the Sunwolves in Japan.
England clearly was not much of a priority in Te’o’s reckoning – and Worcester might be thinking the same after a three-season stint in which he played only 36 matches.
Monye, a former Quins teammate of Mike Brown – who had the England training camp altercation with Te’o – had this to say.
“You can’t swear allegiance to the country and then the moment things get a bit bumpy catch the next flight to the South of France. It doesn’t sit well with me at all.”
What I struggle with more is that Jones did not recognise that Te’o had the “have boots will travel” outlook of a new breed pro rugby mercenary for whom the next paycheck is bigger than the dream of playing international rugby.
The only conclusion you can draw from Te’o’s decision to put a short-term Toulon contract ahead of a national side which paid him well and raised his rugby profile significantly, is that the bit about allegiance to country simply did not register.