After an extended season in rugby league, Leinster’s coaching staff would no doubt prefer if they had time to bed Te’o in to a new team in a new sport.
However with the injury count still swelling and the collective team still struggling to find form, Te’o just might be too much of a temptation for Matt O’Connor to refuse over two weeks of European action.
“He arrived yesterday. We’ll have to see what he looks like on a rugby pitch first,” joked forwards coach Leo Cullen, “but he’s certainly physically imposing looking when he’s down the gym there.”
Asked whether the former Rabbitoh would be among the backline options for the visit of Wasps this weekend, Cullen said:
“That’s a little bit out of my realm, but we want to see him out on the pitch as soon as we can.”
“I don’t know if guys have seen much of the NRL, but he’s been very impressive in the semi-final and final. He’s a pretty outstanding athlete, very aggressive carrier and he has a massive work-rate as well.
“I just saw his stats from the final and he made 33 tackles, so he’s a really good athlete and we’re looking forward to see what he can do.”
Snapshot: 'Outstanding athlete' Ben Te'o had his first Leinster training session today
HOT OFF THE plane from Sydney, NRL champion Ben Te’o joined his new Leinster team-mates in training today.
After an extended season in rugby league, Leinster’s coaching staff would no doubt prefer if they had time to bed Te’o in to a new team in a new sport.
However with the injury count still swelling and the collective team still struggling to find form, Te’o just might be too much of a temptation for Matt O’Connor to refuse over two weeks of European action.
“He arrived yesterday. We’ll have to see what he looks like on a rugby pitch first,” joked forwards coach Leo Cullen, “but he’s certainly physically imposing looking when he’s down the gym there.”
Asked whether the former Rabbitoh would be among the backline options for the visit of Wasps this weekend, Cullen said:
“That’s a little bit out of my realm, but we want to see him out on the pitch as soon as we can.”
“I just saw his stats from the final and he made 33 tackles, so he’s a really good athlete and we’re looking forward to see what he can do.”
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