Sione Tuipulotu wants to create URC history with Glasgow Warriors before key players depart

Since the formation of the United Rugby Championship (URC) in 2021, no team has won the title twice. Stormers, Munster, Leinster and Glasgow themselves have all lifted the trophy once in the past four seasons.

The men’s national team captain is hoping that Warriors’ can become the first team to win two URC titles before several key players say their goodbyes in the summer. Tuipulotu’s centre partner Huw Jones will leave for Toulon, breaking up the beloved ‘Huwipulotu’ partnership at club level.

Six week to build memories and make URC history for Tuipulotu and Glasgow Warriors

Also departing are fellow Scotland internationals Jack Dempsey, Adam Hastings, Jamie Bhatti and Jonny Matthews. Ahead of the visit of Cardiff to Scotstoun this Friday night, Tuipulotu is hoping to get back on track in the league and make this season a special one.

“100 percent that’s my motivation,” said the 29-year-old. “There's six weeks to go left in the season, and then maybe a couple of internationals at the end. There's so much rugby to be played, so I can see the end of the season now.

“It's just about making memories with my mates, and yeah, we can be the first team to win this title twice. No other team has won the URC twice, so that's another motivation for us. Six weeks now to build a couple more memories before the boys take off.”

Tuipulotu backs Warriors to come back stronger after key players depart

Although it will be tough to say goodbye to his friends, Tuipulotu wishes them well on their ventures and understands why they have chosen to leave Warriors. The centre is also backing the club to rebuild with a strong group of emerging talents at their core.

He added: “Some of those big players like Demmo [Dempsey] and Shug [Jones] played big roles in our success over the past couple of years. Ultimately they're probably getting to a stage in their career where they deserve to go out and whether it's earn more money, which is the obvious one, or get a new environment for their family, like Shug, they all deserve those opportunities.

“We've got short careers and my situation when I re-signed to the club was probably a lot different to theirs. I was a different age, probably a different stage of my career, I was just becoming captain, so there's differences.

“I can't really relate to them, so I'm just really happy for them that they're taking off, and I still believe in Franco and his plan to see forward. I thought when we lost TJ (Tom Jordan), Seba (Sebastián Cancelliere) and Henco (Venter), I thought maybe we were going to struggle the year after, and if anything we had a better season.

“We went deeper in Europe, we won all our European games, we're in a better position now on the ladder than we were last year. So it's hard to know what the future holds.

“I trust Franco in these moments, . he says ‘don't worry about what's ahead, just build in front of your own house.’ That's going to be my focus for the next six weeks, just build what's in front of my house, and hopefully at the end of the season something nice is out in front of my house.”

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