Scotland reaction: Sione Tuipulotu reveals 'scary' fact and what his gran whispered in his ear

They outscored the Wallabies by four tries to one in a 27-13 win at Murrayfield but Tuipulotu ranked the performance as only “six or seven out of 10”.

The centre scored the opening try in front of his watching grandmother, who travelled 10,000 miles from Melbourne to see the game. Greenock-born Jaqueline Thomson, 77, emigrated to Australia as a young girl and is the reason why Tuipulotu qualifies for Scotland. It was a special moment for the skipper who played for the Wallabies at under-20 level before leaving Australia.

Thomson presented her grandson after the match with the Hopetoun Cup, the trophy on offer whenever the sides meet. Gregor Townsend’s side led 7-3 at half-time thanks to Tuipulotu’s try and a Finn Russell penalty and added three more tries in the second half through Duhan van der Merwe, Josh Bayliss and Russell.

“We’re really happy with that win,” said Tuipulotu. “But I think the scary thing for this group is that it’s probably just a six or seven out of ten performance against a pretty good team. We’re the only ones on the training ground, we’re the only ones who see what we can pull off.

“It’s just about cleaning up the few errors that we had in that game. I actually think that scoreline could have been a lot bigger. We made a lot of errors on our set-piece and stuff like that when we were clean through. If we can clean up those things and maybe be a bit more ruthless with our set-piece in the finish zone … we had a couple of lineouts that we lost there. We’re a pretty dangerous team.”

Australia had come into the game on the back of impressive victories over England and Wales, scoring 13 tries across the two matches, but Tuipulotu always felt Scotland had the beating of them.

“Throughout the week, we were pretty confident that we were a better team than this Wallaby team,” said the captain. “I’m not too sure if it’s an upset or something like that or how the media views it, but we were very confident that we were going to be the better team. It’s a good win, but I don't think it’s the best win or anything. We’re looking forward to the Six Nations now.

“We definitely didn’t expect them to beat them easily, but we didn't really feel like they had played a defensive team like us and we also didn't feel like they had played an attacking team like us. We were very confident during the week.

“We knew we had to prepare well, obviously. We knew they were going to come in with confidence as well, but we knew once we got into the game that we could make them feel pretty uncomfortable with our defence especially.”

Tuipulotu said that scoring in front of his granny, whose arrival in Scotland last week was a complete surprise to the player, would be a moment he would cherish.

“It was super special,” he 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.”

Asked what she had said to him when she handed over the trophy, Tuipulotu said: “She whispered in my ear and said, ‘we got them!’”

Tuipulotu was involved in a flashpoint with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii in the first half when the Australia centre caught his counterpart with a huge hit. Suaalii ended up injured and had to go off but not before the pair had exchanged words.

“I didn't really know it was him that hit me,” said Tuipulotu. “I don't know how it looks on camera, but it felt humongous. And when I popped up, I was just kind of looking around at who it was and then I saw that he was on the ground, so I said something to him and then he went off the pitch. That's all I can really say about it.

“I talk a lot during every game. When you play your mates, you want to beat them. There was a bit of stick out there, but it makes the game a lot more fun for me anyways.”

Townsend praised Scotland’s defence, which was outstanding, and also talked up his team’s fitness levels. “We outworked the defence and that created opportunities for us,” said the coach.

The win means Scotland end their autumn campaign with three wins from four. The other victories came against Fiji and Portugal, and the only defeat was at the hands of world champions South Africa. Surprisingly, Townsend felt the display in the 32-15 loss to the Springboks was better than the Australia game, partly because of the way that coped with the loss of Scott Cummings to a 20-minute red card.

“To be honest, the South Africa game was still the best performance,” said Townsend. “The physicality, the effort, and responding to losing a man for 20 minutes. That was up there with [the 29-23 victory over] England at Twickenham last year. Today was slightly off, but it didn't knock us off our stride in that second half. It meant that even though it hadn’t been a great first half, we still produced what was needed in the second half. That was pleasing, but there’s more to come from this group.”

- How the Scotland players rated against Australia