Te'o rushed into Broncos side for first NRL game in six years

Ben Te'o will play his first game in the NRL in six years when he lines up for the Brisbane Broncos against the Sea Eagles on Thursday night.

The 33-year-old signed with Brisbane last Thursday and has been rushed into the 17 to play at Gosford in the wake of a back-row shortage at the club with Alex Glenn, David Fifita and Tevita Pangai Jnr all on the sidelines.

Te'o, whose last game in the NRL was in the Rabbitohs' 2014 grand final win, will provide the Broncos with much-needed experience as the club aims to turn around its form after a record-breaking 59-nil loss to the Roosters last week.

"Ben Te'o is going to come into our 17 and it is another opportunity to have a bigger body in our group, and he has got a lot of experience," coach Anthony Seibold said.

"He has trained a couple of times with us now and will need to play a small role off the bench. He has played in the biggest games in both rugby codes all around the world.

"It would have been great for him to play a game of Queensland Cup but we don't have that luxury this year.

"I thought long and hard about it and I thought he trained really well on Sunday. Although he hasn't played rugby league for some time we believe he can do a job off the bench for us."

Te'o, who played 75 games for the Broncos between 2009 and 2012, has enjoyed a successful rugby union career which led to him playing 16 Tests for England and two Tests for the British and Irish Lions.

He was most recently with Japanese club Sunwolves in the Super Rugby competition.

Seibold confirmed Corey Oates would also line up in the back row with Xavier Coates to come into the side on the wing and partner Herbie Farnworth on the flanks.

Seibold said he had been working with the senior leaders and the younger players in the squad about being prepared to have the tough conversations with each other when performances are poor, as they have been in the past fortnight against the Eels and Roosters.

"It is a challenge I have given our leadership group. They have got to be stronger on each other," Seibold said.

"It is all well and good coming from the coaching staff or performance staff but sometimes the tough conversations in training and in games need to come from the group.

"The players don't lose talent overnight. Mentally we haven't been good enough to stay in the contest under pressure. We did for 60 minutes against Parramatta before we fell away but from the get-go against the Roosters we couldn't handle momentum against us."

Seibold said there was a key difference in the aftermath of the Roosters flogging compared to the 58-0 drubbing the Broncos copped in the semi-finals at the hands of the Eels last year.

"It is good that there is a game around the corner," he said.

"The last time we got flogged it was five months [until the next game] and we bounced back pretty well from there.

"In a week where you get beaten as badly as what we did you'd think there is a list a mile long that you've got to try and cover but that is not the answer in my experience.

"I have been coaching for 15 years and believe I have got experience with regards to what needs to be done in the short term which is to focus on two or three things.

"I wanted the group to come in over the weekend hurting a bit and have to put in hard work. People can't forget that we are two [wins] and two [losses]. We have been really poor the last three halves of footy but I have belief in the group and we have narrowed our focus to two or three key things that we believe if we focus on this week we will give a good performance."