Ben T'eo

[Peg Leg]

Gone on a short term deal to Toulon.

Te'o could very easily do another three years in France, make a load of money in the sun, and win some trophies. Great career and an excellent player. There's a tendency when someone is physically big and strong (and fast), and also Polynesian/Melanesian, for people to automatically poke holes in their technique/skillset/mindset/defensive abilities. It's really tiresome and a quite possibly occasionally racist.

There was also very reasonable criticisms to his technique and skillset that do not fall anywhere near to the remit of racism... more that they were very accurate.

Te'o's tendency to pass to his left was a deficiency in his game quandered many chances. In one of the Lions tests we had advantage in their 22 and a massive overlap. A simple pass out and we were in in the corner.

Don't get me wrong. I liked Te'o a lot and what he brought to Leinster was invaluable and very enjoyable to watch at times (see: Ospreys game in RDS when he made mush of Sam Davies) but poking holes in his technique and skillset wasn't unfounded. And still isn't imo

Ben Te'o was the perfect hammer to all Matt O'Connor's seemingly insurmountable nail shaped problems.

Wish him well, he never deviated from his personal goals and added a lot to Leinster.

[Flash Gordon]

Don't know about that. He came to Leinster for a couple of years, decided he then wanted to play for England. Then he went to one of the worst teams in the premiership, lost the chance to compete for the European Cup and now he's off to Toulon. I assume his bank balance is healthy . I thought a lot of our problems under MOC started were down to the combination of MOC and Teo. He was a cracking talent badly coached who was turning out for us but was still playing rugby league. Very often the ball would hit him at 13 and while he might beat a man it rarely seemed to go beyond him. We became eminently predictable and easy to defend against. A couple of years with Joe and I think he would have been a very very different player.

[D4surfer]

He's off back to league in Australia.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-league/52921047

[JB1973]

Personally not a big fan of teo, no doubt he was a big strong athletic but I always though he had limited skills.

He loved the physical side of the game and was as brave as you like but had no kicking game what so ever and his passing was average.

Let's be honest he would not get in this current leinster side

[Flash Gordon]

"Brisbane is home to me and the Broncos have always looked after me and I feel welcome here - this is the perfect place to let me play." Yeah right. Super talent, could have been one of the rugby union greats had he made different choices.

[mildlyinterested]

"Brisbane is home to me and the Broncos have always looked after me and I feel welcome here - this is the perfect place to let me play." Yeah right. Super talent, could have been one of the rugby union greats had he made different choices.

eh no.

[wixfjord]

He's a serious athlete who was great for us and played in a Lions test.

But not sure he has anywhere near the skillset to have been a 'great'!

[Flash Gordon]

He's a serious athlete who was great for us and played in a Lions test.

But not sure he has anywhere near the skillset to have been a 'great'!

He was badly coached under MOC. If he'd played under Schmidt his work on would have been distribution which I think might have been a game changer for him. He had strength, ahtleticism, defence, broke the gain line regularly. His distribution was awful though. Under MOC our attack often finished with him going to ground. To be fair to the lad he tried to offload but that wasn't the game plan and there was rarely a man on his shoulder. I think he was playing his own game plan and from what I saw was still playing League.

From us he went to Worcester where once again, he worked with a poor coaching team. His club career was pretty average/journeyman really which is a sad reflection of poor choices in my opinion. Still, I'm sure he has a few quid in the bank.

[OTT]

His try away to Scarlets in his second season showed what massive potential he had. An average player could not have scored it.it was the highlight of the season.

Sort of happy the way it turned out for us though (in hindsight anyway), delighted with the lads we have and the young guys getting serious game time.

[JB1973]

He's a serious athlete who was great for us and played in a Lions test.

But not sure he has anywhere near the skillset to have been a 'great'!

He was badly coached under MOC. If he'd played under Schmidt his work on would have been distribution which I think might have been a game changer for him. He had strength, ahtleticism, defence, broke the gain line regularly. His distribution was awful though. Under MOC our attack often finished with him going to ground. To be fair to the lad he tried to offload but that wasn't the game plan and there was rarely a man on his shoulder. I think he was playing his own game plan and from what I saw was still playing League.

From us he went to Worcester where once again, he worked with a poor coaching team. His club career was pretty average/journeyman really which is a sad reflection of poor choices in my opinion. Still, I'm sure he has a few quid in the bank.

TBH he has been a pro rugby player for what over a decade? he can't pass the ball of his wrong hand and he can't kick the ball. He must have worked with some top coaches in that period so as great as your man joe is even he couldn't have turned teo in a centre of the calibre of a horan,bod or sella.

In fairness to Teo he was effective at what he did ( ive seen him run right through sam warburton and smash sonny bill in the tackle) and you don't play rl for the broncos and queensland, union for leinster England and the lions unless your a very good player.

But there is a difference between good and great and he will never be a great

On a side note, he loves to travel doesn't he played all over the globe , great life style and fair play to him for seeing the world and getting paid for it

He does also appear to be fast and loose with his international leanings

Junior kiwi rl, capped for samoa in rl then declared for aussies in rl then capped by England in union and then for the lions

[wixfjord]

TBH he has been a pro rugby player for what over a decade? he can't pass the ball of his wrong hand and he can't kick the ball.

Well kicking and passing aren't exactly top of the list of skills for a league player, particularly the position he played in fairness. He started playing union at 27.

[Peg Leg]

His club career was pretty average/journeyman really which is a sad reflection of poor choices in my opinion. Still, I'm sure he has a few quid in the bank.

Like I said,

Wish him well, he never deviated from his personal goals and added a lot to Leinster.

The money was the goal Flash.

[JB1973]

TBH he has been a pro rugby player for what over a decade? he can't pass the ball of his wrong hand and he can't kick the ball.

Well kicking and passing aren't exactly top of the list of skills for a league player, particularly the position he played in fairness. He started playing union at 27.

Maybe not kicking but passing certainly is, the ball is in play a lot in league, maybe that's why he is not great off either hand

RL players tend to play literally on side of the pitch with only the front rowers and halfs taking the ball in the middle and passing either way


BTW I'm not saying he wasn't a good player his career proves he was , his cv is really impressive

[alanair]

Sure his CV is impressive - but I’m not sure he was worth it... never a match winner in any Rugby Union team that I ever saw him play in ... and if I was a potential 12/13 England International , I’d be particularly peed off if he had been selected ahead of me

[wixfjord]

How do you define 'match winner'?

Would scoring a match winning try in a 6N count?
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... tch-report

He had some great moments for us.
Scored some cracking tries running from deep, including a belter in Ravenhill. Given space to run into his game breaking was excellent. Main problem was the lack of diversity in his game.

[Oldschoolsocks]

How do you define 'match winner'?

Would scoring a match winning try in a 6N count?
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... tch-report

He had some great moments for us.
Scored some cracking tries running from deep, including a belter in Ravenhill. Given space to run into his game breaking was excellent. Main problem was the lack of diversity in his game.

I’ll see lack of diversity in his game and raise you his coach was MOC

[cormac]

How do you define 'match winner'?

Would scoring a match winning try in a 6N count?
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... tch-report

He had some great moments for us.
Scored some cracking tries running from deep, including a belter in Ravenhill. Given space to run into his game breaking was excellent. Main problem was the lack of diversity in his game.

I’ll see lack of diversity in his game and raise you his coach was MOC

He played double the number of games for Leo that he played for MOC.

[Oldschoolsocks]

How do you define 'match winner'?

Would scoring a match winning try in a 6N count?
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... tch-report

He had some great moments for us.
Scored some cracking tries running from deep, including a belter in Ravenhill. Given space to run into his game breaking was excellent. Main problem was the lack of diversity in his game.

I’ll see lack of diversity in his game and raise you his coach was MOC

He played double the number of games for Leo that he played for MOC.

Never played for Bomber though.


I always rated Ben Teo as a player, some of his lines from deep were things of beaut. I also felt he was better at 13 than 12.

I don’t necessarily buy into the one trick pony narrative either though, Billy V pretty much has only one trick but it’s really good one.

[ronk]

He was signed to play a role and he did it well. We lost him to a huge pay rise and he went on to have a very successful England and Lions career.

He was signed to change how we played by offering something different and we werent in a good position to get the best out of him.

He was a loss but other players filled the gap so we improved anyway. Modern formations need distributors and can create mismatches with wingers like Lowe appearing anywhere.

[wixfjord]

I don’t necessarily buy into the one trick pony narrative either though, Billy V pretty much has only one trick but it’s really good one.

That's absolutely not true if you've watched Billy V at all over the last few years.
Both Sarries and England have used his handling game a lot, in open play and set moves.
He's very much a double threat. Something that Stander for example hasn't managed to add to his game and could make him far more dangerous if he did.