‘Fend and grease’: Mark Tele’a reveals secret to success after breakout year

After taking the rugby world by storm during a breakout year at Test level, it wasn’t a surprise to see All Blacks wing Mark Tele’a walk onto the World Rugby Awards stage to receive one of the most prestigious individual honours in the sport.

World Rugby had recognised Tele’a as one of four nominees for the Men’s 15s Breakout Player of the Year award. The New Zealander was nominated alongside teammate Tamaiti Williams, France wing Louis Bielle-Biarrey and South African Manie Libbok.

But there could only be one winner. Tele’a shaped up as the fan favourite for the accolade after headline-grabbing performances in the Rugby World Cup knockout stages.

After missing the All Blacks’ crunch clash with Ireland in the quarter-finals, Tele’a returned with a sensational showing against Los Pumas a week later. The wing broke 14 tackles, ran for more than 100 metres, and held his own on the defensive side of the ball.

Tele’a was also one of the All Blacks’ best in a heartbreaking defeat in the World Cup final against eventual champions the Springboks.

The elusive wing was doing things that were hard to fathom. Tele’a appeared to be breaking tackles at ease, and now rugby fans know why.

Almost 24 hours after the World Cup final, Telea held onto his new trophy as he joked about the secret to his success in the black jersey.

“Footwork, a little bit of pace, fend and grease,” Tele’a told a few reporters in response to a question from RugbyPass.

“I’m joking. I’m just trying to get active as much as I can, get off my wing, try and get involved wherever (by) coming around the rucks, getting out of the edges.

"Wherever you can get the ball bro and just try and break the game open, change it up a little bit.”

Rugby fans in the southern hemisphere have known about Tele’a’s seemingly limitless potential for quite some time. The try-scoring phenom has been sensational for Tasman, North Harbour and the Blues, so it wasn’t a shock to see the speedster carry that form into the Test arena.

Tele’a crossed for a double on debut against Scotland at Murrayfield last year, including a try with five minutes to play that secured a tense win during their end-of-season tour.

But that was just the beginning.

Tele’a started against England at Twickenham a week later and managed to take things to an all-new level in 2023. Tele’a scored four tries in seven Test matches this year, but it’s his work rate around the field that is especially impressive.

But when World Rugby announced their breakout award nominees in the lead-up to the World Cup final, teammates started congratulating Tele'a and he didn’t know why.

“A massive honour,” Tele’a added.

“At training, I kind of didn’t know because I don’t have social media so I was getting ready and the boys were coming (up to me) and saying congratulations.

“I was like, ‘congratulations for what?’ They were like, ‘Oh you got nominated,” and I was like, ‘Oh mean.’

“They were just telling me you’ve got to go these Awards… to actually get it, it’s a massive honour. Credit to my team, they’re helping me play the way I can play, get out there on the field and express myself.”

With the likes of Sam Whitelock, Aaron Smith, Dane Coles, Beauden Barrett and Richie Mo’unga leaving the All Blacks after the World Cup, it seems like the dawn of a new era in New Zealand.

The next wave of talented rugby players will fight to do the coveted black jersey justice in the Test arena, and Tele’a will almost certainly play a key role in that under new coach Scott Robertson.

“It is going to be hard without the boys there but the foundations that they left for us young players coming through is massive," he said.

“We can take confidence from that. They have a lot of belief in us, especially us boys coming through.

“They always say we’ve got to leave the black jersey in good hands and I believe they have we’re just gonna do the best we can.”