Ben Te’o has shared details about the altercation with Mike Brown, which ultimately led to both players missing their chances at the Rugby World Cup representing England.
Prior to the incident, Te’o had earned 18 caps under Jones, but regrettably, that marked the end of his England career.
Asked by O’Driscoll how disappointed he was not to go to the World Cup, the Lions centre said: “Yeah it was an interesting one.
“There was a bonding session and an incident that happened.
“We actually got along quite fine but sometimes things happen when guys have a few too many drinks.
“To be honest, I don’t think it was that big of a deal.
“And when I woke up in the morning I didn’t think it was that big of a deal. But obviously for some people, maybe a leadership group or something along those lines, maybe it was a big deal to them?
“Eddie rang me up and said he wasn’t going to take me to the World Cup. He was pretty upset with me.
“I said, ‘OK, no worries’.
“At that stage I was already packing up my house and moving my family, because they were going to come back here to Australia while I was going to be at the World Cup in Japan.
“I was like, ‘Oh well, that was an interesting end to the last three and a half years that I’ve put in’.”
MIKE BROWN’S VIEW:
According to Brown, Itoje was in high spirits and was going around “whacking people in a fun, jovial way”.
“He hit me very hard [on my chest], hard enough to leave a massive handprint” – and says Te’o spotted his frustration.
“Ben kind of cottoned on to that and then for the rest of the time decided he would try and wind me up,”
“It was unfortunate really. We’d had a really intense two-week period in Treviso in our World Cup camp. The training was the toughest I’ve ever experienced in my life and we hadn’t done too much socially away from it. Some guys had a few too many.”
According to Brown’s account, at a certain point, Te’o tripped over a table, causing drinks to spill. This led two younger players to step in and politely ask him to relax.
Brown added: “I don’t think he liked that because they were two young guys and it wound him up a bit,” Brown said.
“So then we left, early evening, late afternoon, to get on the coach. I can hear him in front of me with a group of lads. He’s going: ‘I’m going to knock him out on the bus, I’m going to do this to him, I’m going to do that to him’. I was like: ‘Te’o, I’m stood right behind you. What’s your problem?’
“He kind of walks back to me and we meet and he’s just swung for me. He’s done a lot of boxing, he’s a big lad and he clipped me well. We just kind of came together and everyone kind of dove in and broke it up. I didn’t get near him. That’s basically what happened.”
England’s World Cup fixtures confirmed with routine route to final
*England fixtures in bold.
Round 1:
Saturday 9th September: England vs Argentina, 20:00 kick-off: Pool D
Saturday 9th September: Ireland vs Romania, 14:30 kick-off: Pool B
Sunday 10th September: South Africa vs Scotland, 16:45 kick-off: Pool B
Sunday10th September: Wales vs Fiji, 20:00 kick-off: Pool C
Round 2:
Saturday 16th September: Wales vs Final Qualifier Winner, 16:45 kick-off: Pool C
Saturday 16th September: Ireland vs Tonga, 20:00 kick-off: Pool B
Sunday 17th September: England vs Japan, 20:00 kick-off: Pool D
