Inside Mosese Tuipulotu’s blueprint for landing statement Edinburgh Rugby URC win

This is Mosese Tuipulotu’s first visit to South Africa but the Edinburgh Rugby centre doesn’t have to look too far for advice on how to win at Loftus Versfeld.

Older brother Sione was a huge part of Glasgow Warriors’ victory at the famous stadium in last season’s United Rugby Championship final and Mosese intends to contact him ahead of Saturday’s game against the Vodacom Bulls.

Situated 1350 metres above sea level, the famous stadium in Pretoria presents some particular challenges around playing at altitude which Mosese has never experienced before.

Mosese Tuipulotu made his competitive Edinburgh debut in the narrow loss at home to Leinster. (Photo by Ross Parker / SNS Group)

“This is my first time in South Africa, so it's kind of a different experience for me, but I'm really excited,” he said. “We had a bit of a training session and I was breathing pretty heavy, even walking around the hotel.”

Glasgow defied the odds with their 21-16 win over the Bulls in June in what was a landmark Scottish sporting success of a type rarely seen on foreign soil.

“We can obviously take a bit of inspiration from that,” added Mosese. “Obviously, I think there were a few people who were kind of writing them off. For them to come over and beat the Bulls in Loftus at altitude was pretty cool to see. So, we can take a lot of inspiration from that. It's obviously shown that anyone can do it and there's a lot of teams that are able to win over here, just if they get their mind right around it. I haven't spoken to Sione yet this week, but I'm sure I'll give him a ring and ask him a few questions about it.”

Tuipulotu, 23, made his competitive debut for Edinburgh in last week’s narrow home loss to Leinster and earned the praise of coach Sean Everitt for the way he slotted in following his summer move from the New South Wales Waratahs.

“That was great to hear,” admitted the centre. “I think it helps when you've got a coach that believes in you and supports you and is saying good things about you.

Meanwhile, Edinburgh will play Glasgow Warriors in an ‘A’ game at Hive Stadium on Friday (7.35pm). Senior squad members Connor Boyle, Cammy Scott and Rob Carmichael all start, as do Kelso winger Archie Barbour and Heriot’s back-rower Pat Spence.