‘Finisher’ Ben Te’o is happy to bide his time

Ben Te’o is unafraid of the hostility that awaits when England face Wales in Cardiff on Saturday after revealing he plans to visit North Korea with Jonny May. Te’o has been discussing the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with May, and the pair have decided to embark on a backpacking trip to the country.

“Me and Jonny have been watching a lot of documentaries on North Korea. That’s what he’s quite interested in. We chat a lot about that,” Te’o said. “I sent him a few links on documentaries I thought he might be interested in. We’ve had quite a few chats and coffees about how we can fix the situation there. There’s a lot that needs to be done.

“Jonny wants to do a backpacking trip. He said: ‘We need to go before things get bad’. I said ‘I don’t know if it’s worth it, it’s quite dangerous’ but he said ‘I’m pretty keen on it.’ Maybe we’ll be reporting to you live from North Korea in the summer. Jonny is interesting. I like being around him. I like talking to him about what he gets up to and what he’s thinking.”