DEAN RYAN EXPECTS Ben Te’o to be a massive success when he moves to the Aviva Premiership next season.
After impressing during his two seasons with Leinster, which culminated in him picking up their Player of the Year award for the 2015-16 campaign, Te’o is moving on this summer to Worcester Warriors, where Ryan serves as director of rugby.
But before he departs, the 29-year-old centre — who’s been named in the England squad for their summer tour of Australia as his mother was English-born and bred – will aim to help the Irish province to a Guinness Pro12 title at Connacht’s expense this weekend.
Speaking to the Worcester Warriors’ official website about Teo’s impending arrival, Ryan was full of praise for the New Zealand-born former rugby league star.
“Ben’s arrival will be huge for us,” said Ryan. “The lad is a superstar and we’re going to see one of the best players in England at Sixways. For him to go straight into the England squad gives you an indication of what he’s got and he’s going to be playing here in a Warriors shirt, which is just fantastic.”
Ryan continued: “We saw Ben when he played for Leinster A at Sixways and we saw he could do things that other people can’t. All of a sudden others are wondering how they missed him and that’s the challenge of this club.
“We’re a club that has to see players before anyone else does. The reality of the recruitment table means that the top six or seven teams will have their pick first and we don’t want to be dealing with seventh or eighth choice players.”
The Worcester boss added: “There’s no point in a big star coming here unless he gets what we’re trying to do and Ben got it straight away.
“To tell someone living in Ireland about what we are doing here is a huge challenge but we were transparent about the challenges and rewards and he wanted to come to Sixways.”
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