Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu hailed a dominant 27-13 win over Australia at Murrayfield – and admitted it was ‘special’ to receive the Hopetoun Cup from his delighted grandmother.
The Scots ran riot in the second half, with tries from Duhan van der Merwe, Josh Bayliss and Finn Russell and one from Tuipulotu in the first half.
Gregor Townsend’s side blew away the Wallabies in their final match of the Autumn Test series, ending the year on a high. But Tuipulotu, whose grandmother traveled from Down Under to Scotland for the match, believes they let the Aussies off lightly.
The skipper insisted Scotland should have scored more – and claimed the best is yet to come ahead of the Six Nations in February.
“We are very happy with this victory,” he said. “But I think the scary thing for this group is that it’s probably only a six or seven out of 10 performance against a good team.
‘We made a lot of mistakes in our set pieces when we were ‘clean’. If we can clean those things up and maybe be a little more ruthless in the finish zone, we’re a pretty dangerous team.
Captain Sione Tuipulotu wins the Hopetoun Cup after Scotland’s 27-13 win over Australia
Tuipulotu shared an emotional moment with his grandmother before she presented him with the trophy
‘We were confident all week. We definitely didn’t expect to beat them easily or anything, but we didn’t really feel like Australia had played a defensive team like us or an attacking team like us so far in the fall.
“It’s a good win, but I don’t think it’s the best win or anything like that. We are now looking forward to the Six Nations.”
It was an emotional day for Tuipulotu and his family, with his grandmother on hand to see him play for Scotland for the first time.
77-year-old Greenock native Jacqueline Thomson is the reason he qualifies to play for Scotland – and it was a touching moment when she finally presented him with the Hopetoun Cup.
“It was super special,” he said. ‘To be honest, I don’t score many tries. Not for Glasgow, not for Scotland.
‘But that was quite special to score while my grandmother was here and knew how much she wanted to beat Australia too.
‘When she handed me the trophy at the end, she whispered in my ear and said, ‘We’ve got it.’
‘She lives with my father in our parental home [in Australia]. So my dad picks her up from the airport when she goes home. She will be safe!
A jubilant Gregor Townsend enjoys the victory with Duhan van der Merwe and Darcy Graham
“I feel really blessed because all of this is happening. And not just for me. Before the match, I was a little emotional about her life coming full circle.
‘She moved to Australia as a young girl and raised my mother with limited belongings. And now she can enjoy this, she can sit in the stands and she gets some recognition. It makes me so happy.’
Meanwhile, Townsend also felt that despite the score, the performance had been far from perfect.
The win was a much-needed confidence boost at the end of a difficult year for the Scotland head coach and his players.
He insisted they can still improve before the Six Nations, saying: “There was more in us. We weren’t that accurate in the first half.
‘It shows that we can win when we don’t play so well. There were moments in the game that I loved. We saw what it meant to our fans to beat a quality team.
‘To be honest, the match against South Africa was still the best performance. The physicality, the effort and the reaction to losing a man for 20 minutes. That was the case with England at Twickenham last year.
‘Even though it wasn’t a great first half, we still produced what was necessary in the second half.
‘That was nice, but there is more to come from this group.’