Former Melbourne Rebels centre Sione Tuipulotu will lead Scotland into battle against the Wallabies next month after being named captain of the Scottish team, and his younger brother Mosese could join him on the field after winning a call-up, too.
Tuipulotu – a former Junior Wallaby – was announced as the new Scotland captain by coach Gregor Townsend overnight as part of a 45-man squad named for the November internationals.
The 27-year-old is the second Australian to captain Scotland after former Wallaby Doug Keller also led the Scots in 1949.
Tuipulotu grew up in Melbourne and played three years for the Australian under-20s side before becoming the Rebels’ first homegrown Super Rugby player in 2015. But, stuck behind several Wallabies at the Rebels, Tuipulotu played just 19 games in three years and departed for a stint in Japan in 2019, and then Scotland in 2020.
Tuipulotu’s heritage is Tongan-Australian but he qualifies for Scotland via his maternal grandmother Jaqueline “Anne” Thomson, who emigrated to Australia and settled in Frankston, in Melbourne’s south-east. After moving to the UK, Tuipulotu starred for Glasgow and debuted for the Scotland national side in 2021.
Sione Tuipulotu charging for Scotland against Italy in the Six Nations in 2023.Credit: Getty Images
Tuipulotu has played 27 Tests since, including a clash against the Wallabies in 2021, and is considered a frontline contender for the British and Irish Lions next year. When Townsend was looking for a new captain for Scotland, he couldn’t go past him.
“We feel he’s been a key leader for us now for the last couple of seasons,” Townsend told reporters. “He thrives in that leadership role.”
Former Melbourne Rebels player Sione Tuipulotu with his Scottish grandmother Jaqueline ‘Anne’ Thomson.
Tuipulotu said the news younger brother Mosese had also been called up to the Scotland squad almost matched his appointment as skipper. Former Wallabies flanker Jack Dempsey is also in the squad.
Mosese Tuipulotu, 23, departed the Waratahs at the end of the season to play for Edinburgh after several years of pursuit by the Scottish Rugby Union. The centre, who played for the Australian under 18s, turned the SRU down to re-sign with NSW in 2023 but he was given limited opportunities, with just five Super Rugby caps in the last two years.
After just 12 minutes off the NSW bench last season, Tuipulotu played with Easts in the Shute Shield for a majority of the year before moving to Edinburgh, where he has since started in four games.
Mosese Tuipulotu only played five games for the Waratahs.Credit: Waratahs Rugby
“The most emotional phone call I’ve ever had was Gregor 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,” Sione Tuipulotu told reporters in Scotland.
“Obviously you grow up with your brothers, you see everything they’ve been through to get to this point. To be honest, it’s a fairytale to have my brother there in the squad and I’m captain. I just feel really blessed.
“He’s very similar to me. 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. To be honest, 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.”
The Tuipulotu brothers could have qualified to play for three countries. Father Fohe is Tongan while his mother, Angelina, was born to Scottish and Italian parents. Tuipulotu said he and his brother are very close to their 77-year-old grandmother, who hails from Greenock, outside Glasgow, and gets up to watch their matches.
“She has a thick Scottish accent, so I always knew I was Scottish,” said Tuipulotu. “She played a massive part in me and my siblings’ upbringing. My parents used to work pretty hard when we were younger so they were at work during the week or at the weekends so we would go and stay over at my grandma’s house. We loved going there at the weekends and just running amok.”
Ahead of Sione’s first clash with the Wallabies in 2021, Fohe Tuipulotu told the Herald of his pride and how he’d worked two jobs to help give his son a shot at playing professional rugby.
“I made a decision that I was going to find a way that I could still earn a living but give an opportunity to be free whenever he travels with rugby,” Tuipulotu snr said. “My whole goal was to support him to get him to his dream.”
