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

By PA
Mosese Tuipulotu of the Waratahs looks on ahead of the round 14 Super Rugby Pacific match between Crusaders and NSW Waratahs at Orangetheory Stadium, on May 27, 2023, in Christchurch, New Zealand. (Photo by Joe Allison/Getty Images)

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.

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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.”

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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.”

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Comments

3 Comments
B
Bull Shark 15 days ago

I’ll get excited when a Scotsman qualifies for South Africa and is named Springbok Captain.

O
OJohn 16 days ago

Ridiculous bastardisation of the international game.

D
DH 16 days ago

Top player, would like to see him start for the Lions.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
Four talking points after a 'bonkers' England loss to Australia

On the face of it the England rush defence seemed to be worse this week than last. I thought the line speed last week was very effective against NZ, and that the NZ tries had to be very well worked to get around or through. But in fact the apparent deterioration of the England defence may have been more about Schmidt learning from the NZ game. Australia were quick about getting the ball outside of the midfield defenders, and England struggled to cover it effectively. Suaailii was a key element of this. The Boks are going to test this next week, and if England don't address it we should see some Bok tries out wide.


The England attack was as expected, ie fairly ineffective, per last week. Smith is the exception. His magic was behind almost everything England did on attack. While it's great for England to have a player like this, the question is what will happen when an opponent targets him to minimize his impact. Can England win a game with their Plan B? We saw what happened in the 2019 RWC final when the Boks shut down George Ford.


More of a surprise was the England forward pack. This ought to be the area in which Bothwick excels. It is a traditional England strength, and Borthwick was a forward himself. And there is a lot of experience in that pack. So I thought Australia might be overwhelmed up front. But that's not really what happened. It's not obvious that the England pack is any more than average at the moment.


My conclusion this week is similar to last, namely that England has not solved its coaching problem. It looks very different for NZ and Australia - they both have coaching results that are looking quite good.

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