'Stars aligned' to keep Sione Tuipulotu's Lions dream alive

Through the last decade in professional rugby, nothing Sione Tuipulotu has achieved has been gifted to him.

From struggling to make an impact at his hometown Melbourne Rebels in Australia, to an attempt to jump-start his career in Japan before taking a chance on a move to Scotland, the 28-year-old has fought for every inch just as he does on the field.

So when he suffered a ‘freak’ pectoral muscle injury in January he was not only deprived of captaining the Scots in the Six Nations – the clock was also ticking on his chances to be named in the British and Irish Lions squad.

Fuelled by a desire to wear the famous strawberry red jersey on a tour of the nation of his birth, the dynamic centre got to work on rehabilitation – and it paid off as later this month Tuipulotu will be flying down under with Andy Farrell’s squad.

The Glasgow Warriors star told STV Sport: “The stars did align, didn’t they?

“The opportunity of going back to Australia is something that I wanted to do and I am passionate about going back there and competing against those boys.

“It’s so exciting, probably the most exciting time of my career.

“The way the last five months has been for me has been an emotional rollercoaster but for it to end with the Lions series, that’s the way I wanted it.

“It is a relief but also just so happy. My partner and my son have already headed home [to Australia] and that’s the cherry on top for me – I get to go home and play in front of them and play in front of my mum and dad.”

Tuipulotu had been touted as a potential Lion for months before his injury as he turned heads in the Scotland midfield and helped Glasgow to an unlikely triumph in the URC grand final.

The Melbourne native – a Scot by virtue of his Greenock-born grandmother – was well aware of the noise around his chances for selection but insisted that it made it no easier during the gruelling months recovering from surgery this winter.

Tuipulotu grinned: “I would say it made it 100 times harder! You don’t know if you are going to get selected and you aren’t able to influence the situation on the pitch.

“You have to just hope that everything you’ve done before is enough and you’ll never know that until your name gets called out.

“It was hard for me to let go of the goal of making the Lions because I had put so much pressure on myself to make the team, I couldn’t stop thinking about it to be honest.

“Before I got hurt it was the best thing ever for my rugby – the pressure to perform for a Lions jumper. It made every game important to me.

“For Glasgow, for Scotland, every game was huge because I wanted to be a Lion.

“I enjoyed that pressure of this being a year where every part of my rugby was going to be scrutinised.

“It made me work harder, it made me more disciplined off the pitch and so when I got hurt it was hard.”

Tuipulotu remembers vividly the last Lions tour of Australia, in which the tourists won the series 2-1 courtesy of a narrow decisive victory in the final test match Sydney.

The Wallabies had levelled the series with a win in Melbourne as Sione and his younger brothers – Mosese and Ottavio – became wrapped up in the drama.

“My brothers were actually flag bearers in 2013 the last time the Lions were in Australia,” Tuipulotu revealed. “So to think I’m going back there now to play in one of those games is kind of crazy.

“I remember all the moments from that series – the Israel Falau versus George North match-up, the Jamie Roberts try in the third test.

“But at that time my heroes were the guys playing in yellow – guys like Will Genia were who I looked up to – and it is just funny how my journey has led me here and how passionate I am now about playing for the Lions and writing my own story.

“We still talk about George North, Jamie Roberts, Jonathan Davies on that tour and now I get the opportunity to write my own name into history.”

Tuipulotu is now in camp with the Lions, who met up in Dublin this week before flying to Portugal for a training camp.

And while familiar faces like clubmates Huw Jones and Scott Cummings will ease the transition, the Scotland captain is also excited to form bonds with the Irish, England Welsh and players in the squad who he is more used to facing off against on the rugby field.

Tuipulotu said: “The thing I realise is that they are just like us but playing on the other side of the fence.

“You play these hostile matches against these boys – Jamieson Gibson Park, James Lowe, Fin Smith – but you never really get the chance to share the moment off the field with them properly.

“They are competitors and they are really good blokes! You have your pre-conceived idea of these people are like but people are so different away from the game.”

The Lions will first take to the field in Dublin on June 20 to take on Argentina then fly to Australia for the nine game tour.

There are five tour game opportunities to impress head coach Andy Farrell before the first test against the Wallabies in Brisbane on July 19 and competition for a place in the test team will be intense.

For Tuipulotu that is just the next mountain to scale on his remarkable career path.

He said: “I hope I can go over there, learn first and foremost, but I want to go and compete.

“I have been a professional rugby player now for ten years and I feel it has all led me to here, where I can compete for a test jersey.”