'We’re not sure': Scotland face anxious wait over Sione Tuipulotu

Scotland face a nervous wait to discover the extent of the knee injury which forced captain Sione Tuipulotu to miss Sunday’s 15-12 victory over Australia at Murrayfield.

The centre picked up a knock towards the end of last week’s defeat by New Zealand but trained fully on Wednesday and Thursday.

After “feeling something” in his knee after bumping into Blair Kinghorn during Saturday’s captain’s run, Tuipulotu was sent for a scan and subsequently withdrawn from Sunday’s game against his native country.

“We’re not sure what it is,” said head coach Gregor Townsend. “He needs to see a knee specialist as soon as possible so we should get that [prognosis] back Monday or Tuesday.

“It is not clear-cut if it is a serious injury or not, so we will find out over the next 48 hours. I am glad we got it checked out but whether it is a week or two or more, I can’t say right now.”

Tuipulotu would likely not have played anyway in next Saturday’s third match of this November block against Japan, when Townsend is expected to make plenty of changes to give other players in the squad a chance to stake a World Cup claim.

In his absence against Australia, Rory Darge stepped up to captain the side and delivered a player-of-the-match performance to lead his side to victory.

“When the captain who’s trained all week at 12 doesn’t get through the warm-up or the team run yesterday, then there’s obviously adjustments to be made,” Townsend noted.

“Stafford [McDowall, who was called onto the replacements’ bench] was on his farm in the south-west so he had to come in. We made a decision that if Tom goes into 12 then we need a 12 on the bench just in case Tom has to move during the game because he was covering 10 as well. So that was challenging. But the players know our game really well. And it’s an opportunity for those players too.

“Tom [Jordan] was excellent when he played a couple of seasons ago and I thought he was excellent today. And leadership doesn’t rely on one person or two people. There are other guys like Rory Darge, who led very well by his actions and also just his calm demeanour.

“Finn [Russell] was obviously very integral to what we do in an attack, Kyle Steyn as vice-captain, there’s calming presences within that group.

“And the other change which we can’t overlook either is Scott Cummings, our line-out leader, going off so early and Gregor Brown and Max Williamson, young internationals let’s say,I thought they were excellent. Their physicality, when the game’s going to be played mainly off nine or pick-and-goes around the ruck, you need your front five to bring that physicality at both ends.”

Cummings was forced off after 25 minutes against the Wallabies after straining a thigh adductor muscle and is likely to miss at least the Japan game.

“Initially he’s had an ultrasound so it doesn’t look too bad; he’ll probably get an MRI scan as well,” Townsend reported. “But obviously he left the field today, he felt he couldn’t continue so that would make him a doubt for next week.”