Chieka wanted Ben Te’o

Michael Cheika has revealed the Australian Rugby Union tried to bring Ben Te’o home.

Ben Te’o trains with the touring English team at The Southport School on the Gold Coast.

Michael Cheika has revealed the Australian Rugby Union tried to bring Ben Te’o home but were simply unable to match the huge money on offer in England.

The former NRL star and South Sydney premiership winner is the wildcard inclusion in ­England’s 32-man squad for the three-Test series against Australia, which begins in Brisbane next ­Saturday.

Te’o was born in New Zealand and moved to the Gold Coast at age 17, but has English heritage through his mother and became eligible to wear the Red Rose when he signed for premiership club Worcester late last year, following a successful switch to rugby with Leinster in 2014.

His strong form at outside ­centre, together with encouraging recent feedback from coach Eddie Jones, suggests he’s not there merely to make up the numbers — and the opener at Suncorp ­Stadium, Te’o’s old home ground with the Brisbane Broncos, presents a good opportunity for his inter­national debut.

But for the economics of world rugby, Cheika says, and it could have been for the Wallabies instead. “We would’ve loved to have Ben back here playing for Aust­ralia,” Cheika said yesterday.

“I wouldn’t hesitate to say that we tried to get him to come back and play in Super Rugby here but as we’ve seen before, the English game has more money than we have.”

Te’o, 29, was at the Broncos alongside fellow code converts Karmichael Hunt and Israel Folau, both of whom had a brief spell in the AFL before switching to Super Rugby.

With Australia’s centre combination very much up in the air, it’s quite possible one or even both of Hunt and Folau could directly oppose Te’o in the midfield.

AAP