Sione Tuipulotu admits he wasn’t good enough to warrant selection in Australia when the Junior Wallabies midfielder left Melbourne almost six years ago, but the Lions star says the fact he was, in fact, proved to be the making of him.
Now, Tuipulotu will return to the city where he was developed and ultimately allowed to slip through the cracks as Australian rugby’s talent identification once again left a lot to be desired.
So is it personal?
“I think if you asked me when I first moved from Melbourne I would say, ‘yeah, it is personal’,” Tuipulotu told reporters. “I think there is still a chip on my shoulder.
“I feel like that’s what has got me to this point is having that chip on my shoulder but in terms of being bitter about Australian rugby, I feel like not at all.
“I always say I wasn’t good enough to play for the Wallabies when I was in Melbourne. It wasn’t a selector problem. I wasn’t good enough. That’s plain and simple.
“But I owe everything to Scottish rugby and now I get a chance to go back to Melbourne and play in my home city and hopefully close out a Test series.”
Melbourne-born Lions centre Sione Tuipulotu celebrates after scoring the first try against the Wallabies in Brisbane. Photo: Getty Images
Not only will next week’s Test be the first time Tuipulotu has returned home in “three to four years”, it comes after his younger brother, Mosese, was a flag bearer at the corresponding fixture 12 years ago.
“My little brother was the flag bearer for the game,” Tuipulotu revealed. “It’s pretty cool and crazy that 12 years later I’m playing in one of these in a Test game.”
Talk about rubbing salt into the wound.
“We could close out the series in my hometown,” Tuipulotu said.
“I know all the attention is going to shift to how we can play better from this game. We left a lot of points out there in the first half. The game should have been done after 30-40 minutes, we could have put enough points on there to really put a nail in the coffin.
“To go back to Melbourne this week and hopefully play in front of my family and get another opportunity to play. The stars have aligned for me. I’m just very grateful.”
Sione Tuipulotu in action for Melbourne Rising against Queensland Country in the NRC on September 30, 2017 in Brisbane. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
While Tuipulotu is hoping to wrap up the series in his home state, he also knows that the Wallabies simply won’t roll over.
Having grown up playing alongside fellow Melbourne-raised Rob Valetini, Tuipulotu said the Wallabies would be desperate to keep the series alive.
“They have to be, don’t they?” Tuipulotu said. “They have to be. Of course, we expect that.
“I think the most important thing this week is that we expect them to be desperate, but no more desperate than us, because we’re trying to close out a series next Saturday.
“We’ll focus on us this week and try and get everything right like we did this week and just up our performance again and then we can close it out.
“They might have a couple of players come back for them as well. I grew up with Rob Valentini. I know what he brings to the team. Guys like Willie Skelton. If they come off the injury list, they’ll definitely add. They’re all things we need to prepare for.”
As for that glorious ball Russell threw to send Tuipulotu in for the game’s opening try, where the Scottish playmaker cut out four defenders to hit his midfielder on the chest, the No.12 said it immediately brought back memories of his glorious ball in the Six Nations years ago.
“To be honest, I can’t take any credit for that. That’s him finding me,” Tuipulotu said.
“He threw a pretty similar pass a couple of years back to Hugh Jones against England off his left hand. It was kind of weird when he was throwing it, I was kind of thinking of that.
“I felt like he was going to throw it to that space. I didn’t have to do much. I just had to accelerate and catch the ball. That’s what playing with special players is, it’s pretty cool.”
Making it all the better for Tuipulotu was that he charged past his midfield counterpart Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii on his way to the tryline nine months after their heated exchange in Edinburgh. Were more traded?
“There’s always talking on the field, isn’t there?” Tuipulotu said. “He’s a competitor. I spoke to him after the game. He’s a competitor and so am I.
“I don’t say sorry about anything I say on the field, but I’m sure he’s the same. Out there competing in the highest level of rugby, it should be like that. It should be opposite positions going at each other. That’s what people want to see. I thought he was good tonight and it was nice playing up against him.”
