Te’o excited to tackle mission to North Korea!
PYONGYANG, not the Principality Stadium, is on the minds of England backs Ben Te’o and Jonny May this week. Away from plotting how to destabilise the Welsh defence on Saturday, the pair have been trying to unpick North Korean politics.
The hostile territory of Cardiff will be nothing compared to their proposed trip to the demilitarised zone.
‘We’ve had quite a few chats and coffees about how we can fix the situation there. There’s a lot that needs to be done,’ said Te’o.
‘Jonny and I have been watching a lot of documentaries on North Korea. That’s what he’s quite interested in. I sent him a few links on some documentaries that I thought he might be interested in.
‘He said, “We need to go before things get really bad”. I said, “I don’t know if it’s worth it, it’s quite dangerous”, but he said, “I’m pretty keen on it”. Maybe we’ll be reporting to you live from North Korea in the summer!’
For Te’o, off-the-wall chats such as these with his new team-mates are key to forming relationships on and off the field.
‘There are some interesting characters,’ he added.
‘Jonny May, James Haskell — they’re all quite different. But the best thing about a team like this is that everyone feels comfortable being themselves in the environment.’
As a man who was born in Auckland, New Zealand, represented Samoa at rugby league and played most of his career in Australia, Te’o will have to learn about Anglo-Welsh rivalry, too.
But when it is suggested that Wales versus England in Cardiff may be like nothing he has ever experienced, Te’o disagrees.
‘I’ve played plenty of ‘rival’ games and been to plenty of hostile environments. It’s rugby isn’t it? I’m going to go out on the field and play.
‘State of Origin (the Australian rugby league series) is quite hostile! If you’re going down to Sydney to play the Blues in a decider, it’s full on. Just really intense. Nice loud crowd — I’m not foreign to it.
‘I’ve played in some big European Cup games in France — Toulon was very hostile. I haven’t really chatted to anyone about Wales.’
The 16st 9lb battering ram does need to be patient, however. All Te’o’s four caps have come from the bench — although in his last he scored the fastest try by a Six Nations debutant, 93 seconds after his introduction. His proud English mother stayed up all night in New Zealand to watch him perform as one of Eddie Jones’s ‘finishers’.
‘I understand that strong teams are more like strong squads and that you need depth,’ said the centre. ‘It’s not about me trying to say, “I want more minutes, I want to start”. It’s about doing what’s right for the team.’
At 30 years old, Te’o has had a rich rugby life. He came to Europe in 2014 and had a conversation with then England coach Stuart Lancaster after arriving from the South Sydney Rabbitohs. Sound familiar?
But while Sam Burgess went to Bath, Te’o chose Leinster and did not have ambitions to play Test rugby, only realising he could make it when starring for the Irish province.
‘I wanted some variety in my career. I had felt stale,’ he said. ‘I came because I wanted to give it a go.’
And if his improving Eye-Gym results in sessions led by vision expert Dr Sherylle Calder are anything to go by, he could make the England starting team soon.
‘I had a dodgy keyboard on the first day and then my mouse was playing up!’ he claimed. ‘I think I’m in sixth place but that’s having started in 14th. It’s all about improving.’