Tuipulotu says 'heart and soul' behind rise to Scotland rugby captaincy

Sione Tuipulotu has credited his elevation to the captaincy of Scotland to putting his "heart and soul" into rugby since joining Glasgow three years ago.

The 27-year-old Australian – qualified for Scotland through his Greenock-born grandmother – was appointed captain by head coach Gregor Townsend ahead of the November internationals.

The centre will lead Scotland for the first time at home to Fiji on Saturday, with Tuipulotu winning his 27th cap three years on from his debut against Tonga shortly after arriving in Glasgow from Japanese side Shizuoka Blue Revs.

His appointment re-opened the thorny question of how much nationality should be a factor in test rugby union, but Tuipulotu stressed in a pre-match press conference on Friday how his Scotland future had been anything but assured.

"I look back at when I first came over and I did two weeks quarantine because it was in the Covid times and then when I popped out, one of the boys got Covid, so I ended up doing four weeks in a hotel before I did any training," he said.

"I remember those were some pretty dark days. I was thinking about going home, to be honest, because it was getting a bit tough."

Tuipulotu, who thanked his Glasgow and Scotland coaches for "believing in me," added: "But I'm so glad I made the move to come over.

"The progress I've made probably doesn't surprise me because I put my heart and soul into my journey here and I've worked really hard to get to this point, not only with Scotland, but also with Glasgow."

Tuipulotu's mother, Angelina, will be at Murrayfield for his first game as captain, while his grandmother will watch on television in Australia.

"My grandma's finally figured out how to use social media and she started replying to some of the fans online," laughed Tuipulotu.

"I think some of the fans were saying 'thank you to Granny from Greenock' and she's replying, 'no worries', stuff like that, which is hilarious.

"She doesn't even have a Facebook profile picture, just blank face and Jacqueline Thomson, but she's stoked and she'll be up early in the morning watching our games."