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Axed England midfielder Ben Te'o belatedly gets his chance to make it big in Japan
By Online Editors
Ben Te’o has found himself another new club after being unveiled as a new season signing for the 2020 Super Rugby season.
Out of contract at Worcester last summer following a three-year stay at Sixways, the career of the 2017 Lions Test series midfielder was thrown into turmoil with his unexpected omission from England’s World Cup squad.
Te’o had been one of Eddie Jones’ favourites since he switched into the Gallagher Premiership scene following two seasons at Irish province Leinster.
However, he fell out of favour with Jones followed an alleged altercation with Mike Brown at an England training camp in Treviso in late July.
Cut from Jones’ plans for the finals in Japan, Te’o was quickly snapped up by Toulon, the French Top 14 club who had lost bulwark midfielder Mathieu Bastareaud.
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That decision to move overseas made him unavailable to England under the RFU international selection policy.
However, Te’o is now set to belatedly make it to Japan after being unveiled as one of 14 foreign-born players in the Sunwolves’ initial 15-man squad for the new Super Rugby season, a campaign that is potentially their last in the tournament.
Other overseas inclusions by the Japanese franchise include Australian No8 Jake Schatz, who has played nearly 100 times in Super Rugby, and Georgian hooker Jaba Bregvadze.
WATCH: RugbyPass looks back on some of our favourite moments with the fans at the 2019 World Cup in Japan
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I guess the other option would be to start ALB, he's looked good in the 12 so far when he starts and sets up those outside him. But that would mean putting the vice captain on the bench, which is unlikely. Another option would be to drop Reiko to the bench and play Proctor, though he's gone home so that's not going to happen either.
Both of those players just offer more of the soft distribution skills good centres learn from playing their careers there. Unfortunately that's what's lacking with the current combo.
Go to commentsWhatever let's see if this load of waffle is still valid in 2 years time. ABs will rise we have a lot of new talent coming through. The NPC was the highest standard for years. The game is changing to suit the fast pace we like to play. We get to play the Springboks more, including the franchises, which will make us better! Overall I am optimistic. I will add having watched the England game multiple times we made most of the play. England are an awesome physical team, but you can expect the All Blacks to get better and better at executing the chances. It could easily have been 5 tries to one instead of 3 to 1.
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