How Folau’s pep talk made Te’o ditch league
England centre has good reason to be grateful to former room-mate over switch,
There are many elements to Ben Te’o’s unique career path in professional rugby, first in league and now union, and yet one that has been largely forgotten is that Te’o was viewed in Ireland as a potential successor to Brian O’driscoll.
Leinster recruited Te’o, then 27, with high hopes, given he was coming off three State of Origin titles with Queensland. Te’o was born in Auckland but raised in Australia from the age of 17, and Michael Cheika had inquired about the prospect of him playing for the Wallabies. Ireland had visions of him wearing green.
Ultimately, qualifying for England through his mother set Te’o on a different path, where he has become a firm favourite of Eddie Jones and played for the British and Irish Lions.
Before Te’o landed in Dublin, it was an old room-mate from his early rugby league days at Brisbane Broncos who assured him that crossing codes would be a success: the man who will line up at full-back for Australia today, Israel Folau.
“I probably never imagined that I’d play Test rugby against an old room-mate, but it’s funny how these things work,” Te’o said. “Izzy was one of the guys, when I made the change from rugby league, that I had a deep conversation with about whether I could make it or not. [My concern] was if I was going to be good enough.
“When we do something we all want to do it to our best and we want to be successful, and I wanted to know if he thought I’d have the tools to be successful and whether they transferred to rugby union. He said they would. He backed me and said, ‘Give it a go mate’. I’m here.”
Given that rushing players back from injury into Test rugby is considered to be bad practice, you would imagine Jones could only consider making such a move with a handful of players. Owen Farrell, certainly. Maro Itoje too, plus the Vunipola brothers. And Te’o.
England supporters have seen more of Te’o this season than the faithful back at Worcester because of his unfortunate run with injuries.
Te’o missed the summer tour to South Africa with a torn thigh and required surgery to re-attach the muscle to the tendon.
A calf issue then lengthened his time on the sidelines until midoctober, when he played for 28 minutes against the Ospreys in the Challenge Cup. Two weeks later he was starting against South Africa at Twickenham. “To go into big Test matches like that with very little rugby under your belt is very tough. But Ben is a big, powerful man and he suits exactly what Eddie wants,” said Alan Solomons, the Worcester director of rugby.
Te’o initially represented the power alternative for England’s midfield, rather than the dual-playmaker system involving Farrell and George Ford. Plan B has now become England’s preferred selection there, opting for force over flair at inside centre in a move that in part stemmed from the absence up front of Mako and Billy Vunipola, along with Joe Launchbury and Chris Robshaw.
Te’o, however, is no mere wrecking ball; there have always been flashes of his soft hands and quick footwork.
Some players, according to Jones, can drop back in to Test rugby as though they have never been away. Hence the return of Te’o at the start of the month, despite having played less than half an hour this season.
“We know we can play Owen [Farrell] and George [Ford] together and they’re very good, but we also wanted to have a look at a bigger back line,” Jones explained. “[This month] we have a small forward pack, so we need to have a bit more size in the back line. Te’o gives us that.”
That counts as much for defence as attack. It was Te’o’s rush out of the line that shut down Scott Spedding and sealed England’s 19-16 win over France in the 2017 Six Nations, having dived over for what proved to be the matchwinning try 10 minutes earlier.
Given the number of powerful runners on England’s sick list, Te’o’s average of more than 11 carries per Test offers enormous value. Bernard Foley, his opposite man today, who weighs 16kg (2st 7lb) less than Te’o, will know what is coming down the track.