Te'o played his first game for the Leinster A's on the weekend, taking the first step in a long shot chance to make England's World Cup squad next year.

Te'o has emerged as a World Cup bolter while the rugby union world focuses on Rabbitohs teammate Sam Burgess' arrival in England this week as the Clive Churchill medal-winner prepares to join Bath.

Former Wallabies hooker and Leinster assistant coach Marco Caputo revealed Te'o is being considered for a Guinness PRO12 debut against Edinburgh on Saturday morning Australian time and is viewed as the outside centre replacement for O'Driscoll - the most capped Test player in history.

Caputo also believes forgotten NSW Waratah Kane Douglas is back in Wallabies contention now that Michael Cheika has taken over as coach, but warned that "the floodgates will open" if the ARU relaxes its eligibility rules.

Te'o helped the Rabbitohs win the NRL grand final less than a month ago and celebrated the club's first title since 1971, before starting a rich two-year deal in Ireland.

"He's gone from playing in front of 80,000 at ANZ Stadium to playing for an A team in Wales with eight people and a dog. But he'll get a taste of the real stuff against Edinburgh," Caputo said.

"We wanted someone to come in to take up the position left by Brian O'Driscoll and we wanted someone with a physical presence.

"When you look at Ben ... he ticks all the boxes. When he gets the ball we want him to take on the line, he rarely gets beaten in contact.

"O'Driscoll is an iconic player. We don't want Ben to be Brian O'Driscoll, we just want him to be a handful."

Douglas quit Australian rugby at the end of the Super Rugby season after failing to negotiate a new deal with the ARU.

Cheika was one his biggest supporters and declared Douglas would be "sorely missed" after he agreed to move to Ireland.

But with reports former Test captain James Horwill is set to join Harlequins, the door is open for Douglas to make an Australian rugby comeback.

Leinster scrum coach Caputo said Douglas had already improved and expected Cheika would gauge the 25-year-old lock's interest in playing for the Wallabies.

The ARU has a strict policy of not selecting players in the Wallabies squad who are contracted to overseas clubs.

But there have been calls to relax the rules to boost Australia's World Cup hopes, allowing Test veteran Matt Giteau and Douglas to play for the Wallabies.

Douglas was a starting lock against Castres on Monday morning Australian time and Caputo said he had benefited form working with Irish lineout guru Leo Cullen.

"Kane's world-class now athletically, but if he can add lineout technician to his game he will be one of the best," Caputo said.

"He's got another one or two World Cups in front of him ... this is a great education for him and being here will make his acceleration even faster.

"I think [Cheika] is smart enough to know how important the soldiers who do the gritty work are. I'm sure Cheik's asking the question of the powers that be.

"Australia doesn't have the player base like New Zealand or South Africa and if they relax the rules for one it will just open up the floodgates ... it would water down Super Rugby and guys would be lining up to leave because [of the money on offer].

"Giteau is playing as good now as he ever has ... Cheik would look at that and it would strengthen the Wallabies going into the World Cup."

Te'o also holds a British passport and has impressed Leinster coaching staff after just four training sessions.

Leinster great O'Driscoll played 141 Tests - 133 for Ireland and eight for the British and Irish Lions - and passed Wallabies champion George Gregan last year as the most capped player in international rugby.

"The reports we got back was that Ben was very, very good with the ball, he just needs to work on some positional play. Everything we've seen in the two weeks he's been here, he's very dynamic and it won't take him long to get instincts back.

"He's going to be a very good player. He has a presence on the field, that's for sure."

The Wallabies trained for the first time under Cheika on Tuesday morning Australian time with the new coach to name his team on Friday to play against the Barbarians.