Why Scotland didn’t pick Mosese Tuipulotu for summer tour as Gregor Townsend hints that Lions may not be for him

Gregor Townsend picked ten uncapped players alongside a core of experienced campaigners for the summer tour of the Americas but the Scotland coach resisted the temptation to throw Mosese Tuipulotu into the mix.

The young centre will instead be given time to find his feet at Edinburgh after opting to make the move from Australia, with Townsend urging him to stake a claim for the autumn Tests. It means the only Tuipulotu flying out to Canada later this month will be his older brother Sione who is one of the senior players in the touring party and likely to be part of the leadership group for the four-match trip.

Townsend was involved in negotiations to bring Mosese Tuipulotu to Glasgow Warriors last season, a move which would have united the two brothers at Scotstoun. However, the deal was never done as Mosese opted to remain in New South Wales with the Waratahs. He spoke then about his ambitions to represent Australia but, one year on, the 23-year-old has changed tack and Edinburgh announced in early May that he was joining them on a two-year deal.

Mosese came through the Melbourne Rebels academy before moving to New South Wales in 2021 to represent Eastern Suburbs in the Shute Shield and the Waratahs in Super Rugby.

“I’ve watched all his games this year at Shield level for Easts and we’re delighted he’s coming to Scotland,” said Townsend. “He’s a Scottish-qualified player who’s been signed by Edinburgh but we feel there is a lot of experience in the centre positions with the players we’ve selected and it’s probably better for Mosese to establish himself at Edinburgh and get the game-time to put pressure on the centres in our squad and also put his hand up for selection in November.”

Sione is one of those ahead of him in the pecking order but the tour squad also includes other Glasgow centres Huw Jones and Stafford McDowall, and the uncapped Matt Currie who will be a team-mate of Mosese’s at Edinburgh next season.

Cole Forbes, another Scotland-qualified player in Super Rugby, was not considered for the tour. The former Glasgow Warriors back has been earning rave reviews for his performances for the Auckland-based Blues.

Mosese Tuipulotu, with ball in hand, playing for the Waratahs against the Crusaders in a Super Rugby Pacific match at Orangetheory Stadium in Christchurch. (Photo by Sanka Vidanagama / AFP via Getty Images)

“Cole’s a different situation in that he isn’t coming to Scotland,” explained Townsend. “Super Rugby contracts are different in that you really have to make yourself available for the country you’re playing in, especially in New Zealand. So he wasn’t someone that came into our thoughts because he is going to be at the Blues for another season or two.

“It’s a pity he’s no longer in Scotland because we really loved how he played at Glasgow, his competitiveness, and how he was developing as both a winger and full-back, and he’s shown that for the Blues this season.”

The tour marks Scotland’s first time in North America since 2018 when they beat Canada 48-10 in Edmonton but then lost 30-29 to the United States in Houston. This year, they will again open against the Canadians, in Ottawa on July 6, before travelling to Washington DC to play USA on July 12. The tour then heads to South America for Test matches against Chile in Santiago on July 20 and Uruguay in Montevideo on July 27.

“These are good teams,” warned Townsend. “USA beat us the last time we were out there, Chile and Uruguay played very well in the World Cup. Uruguay really pushed France in France, so we know these are going to be tough games. There will be certain areas of the game they will challenge us even more, but that's a really good thing for this group of players to be as far away from home and home comforts as possible and deliver a performance that we believe matches our potential, and a real professional performance for those 80 minutes.”

Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend.

Townsend will trim his 37-man squad after the USA match and again before the final game with Uruguay which will see the coach field a team of only Scots-based players as the fixture falls outside the recognised international window. With so many new faces, Townsend will look to integrate them over the course of the tour.

“The important thing is how quickly we build cohesion,” he said. “We're going to have a different team and changes to the team in the first two games. With a squad of 37 you want to give players opportunities and deal with the challenges in a really positive manner. We'll have different training facilities, two of our games are on 3G - the first one is on a pitch used for American football, there will be hot conditions in Ottawa and Washington, the recovery when we fly overnight from Washington to Chile, the six-day turnaround between our first two games - these are all factors we have to deal with positively.”

The high profile omissions from the Scotland tour squad include Finn Russell, Blair Kinghorn, Darcy Graham, Ben White, Zander Fagerson and Jack Dempsey. All are likely to have aspirations to go on the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in 2025 and Townsend acknowledged it was a factor when he made his selection, but the coach played down the likelihood of being part of the Lions coaching team, as he had been in 2021.

"It doesn't apply to me,” he said. “This is about the players. When you've got the World Cup that happened 12 months ago, and a Lions tour next year, that is a really challenging period for a player to have 12 months of rugby, go on a summer tour, have a shortened pre-season, then look forward to 10, 11 months of rugby for your club, your country and potentially a Lions tour at the end of it. We've got to make sure the demands on our players mean they still get to play at the highest level and achieve the things they want to in their careers, but that they are able to be physically and mentally at the best level when it counts.”