It’s more of an ironic than sad or even damning commentary on the Lions’ opening effort in Whangarei that the pick of the team which was itself the pick of the four Home Unions was a New Zealander.
In any event, the 30-year-old Aucklander Ben Te’o was undoubtedly one of the stand-out performers on Saturday night, making 13 carries for 87 metres and five line breaks. This was an impressive statement of intent.
In truth, New Zealand rugby union has few claims on him. The son of a Samoan father and English mother, Te'o is as much a product of Australian rugby league as anything, and Leinster can claim the biggest influence on his career in Union after providing him with a two-year introduction to the code.
Whereupon, of course, Eddie Jones and the RFU got in touch, and so a player who in many ways has been refreshingly candid about his monetary needs from a short professional career, became the first Worcester player to represent the Lions in their tour opener. And so another challenge was conquered impressively. Little fazes this fella.
“I expected a tough game like that. Obviously the preparation’s been very short. Not long off getting off the plane. The boys are still a little bit jetlagged, but no excuse, we had to come here and play hard. They were a good side, dug deep, we got tested and that’s what we wanted.
“You’ve got to be frustrated with a few missed opportunities. There were two or three tries left out there early on. This is a new team, a new bunch of guys that haven’t been together long. Those are things we can work on. I think we showed character and a bit of grit and that’s good going forward.
“If I’m honest, the last three days have been really tough. Waking up at 1am in the morning, some guys getting one or two hours sleep. Boys really, really tired before training, before games. But we’ve got to push through and over the next few days, it’s going to get a lot easier. The guys playing on Wednesday will probably be feeling a lot better than the guys playing today.
“One of my strengths is being a ball-carrier, lot of people might say I don’t do some of the other things. But those are things I am always trying to work on, but sometimes you can show them in certain games, sometimes you just have to hard graft. Today you might have seen a little bit and those are things I am working on constantly in England camp and I learn from some of the people around me.
Unparalleled strength
“Execution maybe came down to a little bit of nerves. There is a lot of pressure out there on us and everyone is vying for spots., And, let’s be honest, a little bit of fatigue. Bit of concentration. A couple more stick, we score a couple more tries, maybe it’s a different game, we grow in confidence but that’s not how it was tonight.”
Asked about being back on a New Zealand rugby field, not surprisingly Te’o did not seem especially nostalgic.
“It’s alright. I played a bit of rugby back here. I grew up here early days playing rugby. It’s nice to come here. I got to play in front of some family here and I enjoyed it. Silverdale is the junior club I played for.”
But the performance of the Barbarians, a semi-professional team at best, highlighted the unparalleled strength in depth of New Zealand rugby.
“There is so much talent in this country,” said Te’o. “The difference between the guys in Super Rugby and these guys here is very small. That first 20 minutes, they pulled out all their bags of tricks, they tried everything, had us on the ropes a bit.”
For some players, being chosen for this game might prove a misfortune, although seemingly not for Te’o.
“Yes, you might be slightly disadvantaged compared to if you are playing on Wednesday. In teams like this, with so many special players, you just have to take your chances, you just have to do what you are going to do. Maybe you should have got to the semi-finals or finals with your club team, and you’d be playing on Wednesday. Get knocked out early, you play in this first game.”
Interestingly, Te'o was renewing old 10-12 Leinster acquaintances with Johnny Sexton, and was very positive about what his former team-mate can achieve on this tour.
“I know Jonny’s a quality player. We’ve all seen the big games and how well he plays. He’s probably not happy with some of the things, with how it went tonight. I definitely think he’s going to grow into it. He hasn’t played a lot of rugby in the last few months. A few more training sessions and he’ll be fine.”
As for the differences between Sexton and Owen Farrell, with whom he has also played in England colours, Te'o said: "Not too much. They are both very dominant players. They run it how they want to, they are very clear in what they want. I let them run the show and support them. They are both quality players and world class."
