'Mosese’s the favourite, everyone knows it': Sione Tuipulotu

Sione Tuipulotu spoke of his pride after his appointment as Scotland’s new skipper coincided with a maiden call-up for his younger brother Mosese.

The 27-year-old Glasgow centre has been handed the captaincy ahead of the autumn Tests against Fiji, South Africa, Portugal and Australia, with his 23-year-old sibling, who joined Edinburgh this summer, in line to make his debut in one of those matches next month.

The Australia-born pair are eligible for Scotland through their Greenock-born grandmother, Jacqueline Thomson, and Sione, who has won 27 caps since his debut three years ago, feels “blessed” that such a scenario has come to fruition.

“The most emotional phone call I’ve ever had was Gregor (Townsend) phoning me to tell me I’ll be Scotland captain, but when he phoned to say my brother would be included was a pretty close second,” he told Scottish Rugby.

“Obviously you grow up with your brothers, you see everything they’ve been through to get to this point. We’re going to be sharing a training environment, and I really want to challenge him to be better along these four weeks.

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“To be honest, it’s a fairy tale to have my brother there in the squad and I’m captain. I just feel really blessed.

“It makes me really excited to see what we can achieve over the next four weeks, and to have my brother there possibly working towards having his debut cap, whether it’s this time around or next time or whatever, but to have him by my side with me captaining, it is a fairy tale.”

Sione has backed his younger brother to shine in the international arena.

“He’s very similar to me,” he said. “He’s the most competitive guy I’ve ever met, and I know if his number’s called upon, he will take it with both hands and he’ll play with his heart.

“We always joke about this but my gran back home, her favourite’s always been Mosese! I think he was the naughtiest so he spent the most time hiding out at her house so my dad couldn’t get to him.

“I know my gran will be so proud of him and I’m really looking forward to getting to work with him. My gran always wakes up in the middle of the night and watches me and Mosese’s Glasgow and Edinburgh games, and my dad always jokes around because the next day, she always watches his games back but never the Glasgow games!

“Mosese’s the favourite, everyone knows it in the family.”