Former Junior Wallaby Sione Tuipulotu captained Scotland to a famous win over Australia. He – and his 77-year-old grandmother – were in the middle of absolutely everything at Murrayfield.
Given everything that had occurred in the previous hour or two, it made bizarrely perfect sense that Sione Tuipulotu’s grandmother would hand him the Hopetoun Cup trophy after beating the Wallabies at Murrayfield.Sione Tuipulotu is presented with the Hopetoun Cup at Murrayfield by his grandmother Jaqueline Thomson.The Scotland captain’s answer came with a broad grin, and an even broader Australian accent.
The son of a Tongan-Australia father and a mother with Italian-Scottish heritage, Tuipulotu qualified as eligible for Scotland due to his maternal grandmother Jaqueline Thomson, who was born in Greenock in the Scottish lowlands but emigrated to Australia as a child and settled in Frankston. The 27-year-old was made captain ahead of the November internationals, and last week, Thomson was flown to Scotland by a sponsor, for the first time in decades, as a surprise for Tuipulotu and his brother Mosese, who both play rugby in Scotland and are close to their gran.
“It was super special,” Tuipulotu said. “I don’t really score many tries, to be honest. Not for Glasgow, not for Scotland. But that one was pretty special to score while my gran was here and knowing how much she also wanted to beat Australia.”Divided loyalties have long been dealt with for Tuipulotu, but he appeared to set a physical, no-backward-step tone against Australia for his Scotland teammates.
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