Gregor Townsend: Sione Tuipulotu has been a key leader for Scotland

Gregor Townsend says Sione Tuipulotu has proven himself to be a “key leader” for club and country as he named the Glasgow Warriors as captain for upcoming matches.

Scotland take on Fiji, Australia, South Africa and Portugal in their Autumn series next month.

Townsend named his 45-man squad for the four games that will take place across November on Wednesday.

Tuipulotu was named as skipper of the side and the head coach believes he will flourish in the role with the help of others including vice-captain Finn Russell and Rory Sutherland.

Speaking after announcing his squad, Townsend said: “We feel he’s been a key leader for us now for the last couple of seasons and he thrives in that leadership role, we’ve seen that with Glasgow and in the summer tour.

“We felt this was the right time to name one captain, last year we wanted to grow our depth of leaders, we had co-captains throughout the Six Nations and then in the summer tour we had other players who got that opportunity.

“We still have some real strong leaders to support Sione, but we feel he is the right man, right now, for the team.

“I would hope that he will just get better and better and the team will gel around him, but there’s injuries, there are time when players aren’t available, but I hope and expect this is going to be good for the team and good for Sione.

“It’s more about what Sione has done in that leadership role, I think Rory is developing, he is a young player and the captaincy experience was great for him and he can provide that support to Sione.

“In terms of Finn, we are conscious that he has got a lot of responsibility in our game, in terms of our attack and decision making, so that was in my mind about not giving him that extra burden.

“We want him to play his game and lead the team from an attacking sense and I think his relationship with Sione has really blossomed over the past couple of years, on the field and off the field, they connect really well and I know Sione will be leaning on Finn, Rory and others to help him lead the team.”