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How a Wallaby helped steer Ben Te'o's switch to union
By Chris Jones
England centre Ben Te’o has revealed a conversation with housemate Israel Folau in Sydney convinced him to change codes and try to become a rugby union success.
Te’o has gone on to become an England and British and Irish Lions centre and one of his main tasks tomorrow at Twickenham will be helping shut down the threat Folau will pose in an Australian jersey in the final test of the November campaign.
The pair shared a house in the Kensington suburb of Sydney and it proved to be a key moment in the Worcester Warriors centre’s career and he quit league in 2014 to join Leinster and then moved to England to launch his test career.
Te’o said: “I played with Izzy a lot and against him and he is a class player. We have to keep him quiet, not kick the ball straight down to him and let him gallop back. I haven’t spoken to him yet but will catch up after the game and we used to live together.
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“We were both coming through and I am really happy with the progression he made having played three different codes and he is one of the top full backs in the world and I am just trying to follow his lead. I never imagined I would play Test rugby against an old room mate and its funny how things work out. Izzy was one of the guys when I was going to make the change from league I went to and had a deep conversation and asked for his honest opinion if he thought I could make it and he backed me and said “give it a go mate".
“My main concern about switching from league was if I was going to be good enough. I wanted to know if Izzy thought I had the tools and if they could transfer into rugby union and he said I would so I gave it a go.
“He was a good housemate and it was early in his union career and he is a hard worker. He always puts into his preparation and we shared the differences about the games and he is very driven in his career and that is something I took away.”
Te’o, the former South Sydney Rabbitohs star, was hoping to catch up with good mate Kurtley Beale but he failed to make the Wallaby 23 for the game with England. “Kurtley is very good friend of mine and I was surprised that he didn’t make the squad. I was looking forward to having a game against him and he is a world class player” added Te’o.
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Latest Comments
I was at this match. Jordie Barrett earned his money with a massive hit to slow a connaught attack to win the math when Leinster had 14 in the last few mins. Mack Hansen had a real go at the refereeing after citing a serious head hits on Iaone and Aki.
connaught were up for this. Snyman tried a trademark dirty after, and the onnaught 4 and the onnaught pack absolutely laid into him.
Leinster hose to kick to the corner when only winning by 5 with 10 left and qith only 2 tries scored. onnaught should have punisihed them for that utter stupidity after they broke out and Leinster yellowed to stop the attack.
13 changes from last week. It seems teams are scoring about 10 points less against Leinster this year. With Neinaber in his second year, the new attack coah established, surely they will be a bigger threat in champions up? Or will the attack recgress further.
They must adopt the SA philosophy of take your 3 pointers and the bonus points will come.
connaught back line inluding Iaone, Murphy, Aki, Forde, cordero is the seond best in Ireland surely. Leinster were lucky here
Go to commentsShould have played more for England but he jumped ship just as he was breaking through.
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