Sione Tuipulotu: Why I owe a lot to Six Nations friend-turned-foe Steve Tandy

Tandy spent almost six years as Scotland’s defence coach but quit last year to take over as boss of his native national team, answering his country’s call during a time of turmoil.

Tuipulotu, who will lead out the visitors at the Principality Stadium, said Tandy helped bring him out of his shell when he first made the move to Scotland in 2021. The centre had been playing his club rugby in Japan when he was approached by Gregor Townsend. Tuipulotu qualified for Scotland through his grandmother from Greenock and made the leap, signing for Glasgow Warriors.

Before he could arrive at Scotstoun he was called up for a Scotland camp ahead of a summer tour which ended up being scrapped due to Covid and Tuipulotu has not forgotten how Tandy helped him settle in to his new surroundings.

“He was the first coach I probably had a personal relationship with when I moved a long way away from home,” said the Scotland skipper. “I think he could see - and I know you guys probably don't believe me - but if I'm around people I'm very shy.

“I'm not shy now, but when I first came over here I was really shy and he was one of the first coaches to put his arm around me as a person before, maybe, as a rugby player and that had a massive effect on my rugby because I felt like I trusted him a lot and I confided in him, a lot of stuff outside of rugby as well.

“In the early stages of my development in Scotland he played a massive part of just bringing me out of my shell. I suppose maybe he saw the leader in me that maybe I didn't even see at that time and he encouraged that side as well. So I owe a lot to him.”

What Tandy did for Tuipulotu

Because of Covid it was a difficult time for all concerned, with Tuipulotu having to isolate after travelling from Japan. It made integration even more difficult for the centre who was born and raised in Australia and represented the Wallabies at under-20 level before making the switch.

“I think he just noticed my shyness and he noticed maybe I didn't trust everyone around me at that time because I didn't know everyone and probably scared to get my personality out because I was new to the environment,” added Tuipulotu.

“He just encouraged me to be myself. I probably wouldn't be sitting at this table because I wouldn't have come out so early in my Scotland journey as I have if I didn't have those type of coaches around me, so like I said, I owe a lot to him.

“I didn't know anyone at that time - it was during Covid when we were isolating – so it was a weird time. After that he just encouraged me to be myself and I generally think so highly of him, and his family as well.”

All that will be parked for 80 minutes on Saturday as Scotland look to build on their stunning win over England and inflict more misery on a Welsh side who lost heavily to England and France in the opening two rounds of the Six Nations.

Scotland find themselves second in the table despite losing their opener to Italy in Rome and a win over Wales would see them well placed to mount a title challenge over the final two rounds. There is no game next weekend and the championship will resume for the Scots on March 7 when favourites and defending champions France visit Murrayfield. Tuipulotu is not thinking that far ahead and only has eyes for Wales.

“Before the last game I felt like there was no ‘next game’,” he said. “That was the reality of the situation we were in and that was the pressure I put on myself. That pressure is still there: I feel like there is no game after this. We need to play who's in front of us at the moment and that's Wales.

“We know there's a fallow week coming after that and we'll be able to regroup and possibly get some boys back off the injury list. But I don’t want to start looking beyond the fallow week and start thinking about the last two games. We just need to get this one and we're desperate to get this victory.”

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