Scotland's Sione Tuipulotu on letting go of anger and the chance to put one over his Australia mates
Sione Tuipulotu says he used to feel “professional anger” about his treatment at the hands of Australian rugby. But the new Scotland captain is now at peace with his career path and will try not to make Sunday’s Murrayfield match with the Wallabies bigger than it already is.
It won’t be easy. It’s been a week of high emotion for the centre who received a surprise visit from his granny who flew in from Melbourne to see Sione and his brother, Mosese. Jacqueline Thomson, originally from Greenock, is the reason the Tuipulotu boys qualify for Scotland and it was a special moment when Sione was able to reunite with her for the first time in four years.
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Hide AdShe will be in the stand on Sunday for an eagerly anticipated match between two sides who look evenly matched and are committed to playing an open, entertaining game. The weather might have a say in that but the talent in both backlines suggests there should be a few tries.


Tuipulotu, who played for Australia up to under-20 level, has faced the Wallabies with Scotland before, ending up on the wrong end of a 16-15 scoreline in Edinburgh in 2022. Asked if he still felt he had a point to prove to them, he paused.
“It’s a difficult question,” he said. “I think if you asked me that question maybe three or four years ago when I’d first left Australia, I had so much, I suppose, animosity or professional anger inside of me just because I felt like maybe my talent really wasn’t looked after in Australia. But, to be honest, now I feel like I am where I’m supposed to be, here in Scotland. And I feel like all those things that happened early in my career were meant to happen because now I’m sitting here talking to you guys, in the position that I am.”
Overlooked by the national side, Tuipulotu left Australia originally for Japan but was lured to Scotland and Glasgow Warriors in summer of 2021 after a Zoom call with Gregor Townsend. It has been a mutually beneficial relationship and the noises coming out of the Wallabies camp this week are that Tuipulotu is one that got away.
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Hide AdHaving said that, they are currently well served by centre options. Len Ikitau and Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii will line up at 12 and 13 against the Scots, and the latter in particular has been garnering the kind of attention reserved for only the most talented.
The 21-year-old former rugby league teen prodigy played his first senior game of union at Twickenham a fortnight ago and made such a splash in Australia’s 42-27 win that head coach Joe Schmidt dubbed him “an aerial freak” for his ability under the high ball. Not everyone has been impressed by his cross-code switch. When news broke of Suaalii’s decision to move to union, the league legend Phil Gould told him: “Go now. Don’t let the door hit you on the arse on the way out.”


Tuipulotu is a fan and is relishing the battle he and Huw Jones will have against Ikitau and Suaalii.
“He's an amazing talent,” said the Scotland skipper. “Me and my brother are big rugby league fans, so we've watched a lot of him when he was playing at the Chooks [Sydney Roosters] and he's an amazing talent, a really good athlete.
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Hide Ad“Me and Shug versus Len and Suaalii, it’s going to be a really tasty battle and it's one that me and Shug are really looking forward to.”
Suaalii’s height and offloading ability were highlighted this week by Gregor Townsend but the Scotland coach also believes the man from New South Wales has not been properly tested defensively. England never really pressured the 13 channel at Twickenham and he was only on the field for 20 minutes against Wales. It’s an area Scotland will look to capitalise on through Jones and Tuipulotu.
In many ways Australia have been the stars of the Autumn Nations Series so far. The win at Twickenham was a startling result given the way they had been written off in the build-up. The 52-20 thrashing of Wales was less surprising but impressive nonetheless. They are halfway to emulating the great side of 1984 who did the Grand Slam but arguably their two toughest tests await, in Edinburgh and Dublin.
As Tuipulotu noted, the Wallabies have got the better of the same two sides Scotland beat in the Six Nations so Sunday should be close. For the home captain, it’s a game freighted with all sorts of emotions. The trick will be to channel them in the right way.
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Hide Ad“It’s funny, you always want to play a lot harder against your mates and I have a lot of mates in that Wallaby team,” added Tuipulotu. “But I’m sure it’s the same for them. I’m trying to make it not bigger than it is, really. It’s just another Test match for Scotland, so that’s big in its own right.


“I’ve taken my preparation really seriously this week and just trying to not change anything. I know it's a big game for the media in terms of me playing back against Australia but it's probably just more of a special game for me because my granny gets to watch me play and for her to be back in her home country. And when I run out, I’ll look up and I’ll see her in the stands and she’ll sing the anthem. It will be special for me and my family and, most importantly, special for my gran. I’m so happy that she gets to have this experience because, like I’ve said before, I wouldn’t be here without her.”
Scotland v Australia (Murrayfield, Sunday, 1.40pm)
Scotland: B Kinghorn; D Graham, H Jones, S Tuipulotu (capt), D van der Merwe; F Russell, B White; P Schoeman, E Ashman, Z Fagerson, G Gilchrist, S Cummings, J Ritchie, R Darge, M Fagerson. Replacements: D Richardson, R Sutherland, W Hurd, A Craig, J Bayliss, G Horne, K Rowe, T Jordan.
Australia: T Wright; A Kellaway, J-A Suaalii, L Ikitau, H Potter; N Lolesio, J Gordon; A Bell, B Paenga-Amosa, A Alaalatoa, J Williams, W Skelton, R Valetini, C Tizzano, H Wilson (capt). Replacements: B Pollard, I Kailea, Z Nonggorr, L Salakaia-Loto, L Gleeson, T McDermott, B Donaldson, M Jorgensen.
Referee: Chris Busby (Ireland).
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