Coach Gregor Townsend said Sione Tuipulotu was the “right man” to lead Scotland after appointing the Glasgow centre as his new skipper ahead of the November Tests.
Change of leadership
Finn Russell and Rory Darge were made co-captains for the Six Nations earlier this year – replacing Jamie Ritchie, who led the team to the 2023 World Cup – but Townsend has opted for another change of leadership.
Australia-born Tuipulotu will captain Scotland for next month’s matches against Fiji, South Africa, Portugal and Australia, and the head coach expects the 27-year-old to embrace the role and make it his own for the long term.
“We feel he’s been a key leader for us now for the last couple of seasons, he thrives in that leadership role,” said Townsend.
“We’ve seen that with Glasgow, but also on the summer tour.
“We felt this was the right time to name one captain. Last year we wanted to grow our depth of leaders with co-captains throughout the Six Nations, and then the summer tour we had other players that got that opportunity.”
He added: “Sometimes captaincy can inhibit players. Sometimes it’s a bit of a distraction or a weight, whereas Sione feels like it’s something that gets him even more motivated during the week to think about the team.”
Young player
Townsend explained the decision to move away from the dual captaincy of Russell and Darge was “more to do with what Sione’s done in that leadership role”.
He said Darge was “developing as a young player” while flyhalf Finn had a lot of responsibility in leading the team’s attack.
Townsend said Russell was comfortable with the change of leadership
“I met Finn last week,” he said.
“I know Finn connected with Sione almost straight away, so they’re already talking about how that’s going to work together. I’m looking forward to Sione’s leadership and Finn working alongside him.”
Mosese Tuipulotu, the brother of Sione, is also among five uncapped players in the squad along with Glasgow pair Alex Samuel and Tom Jordan and Edinburgh duo Freddy Douglas and Ben Muncaster.
Douglas, the 19-year-old back-rower, has been included despite never having played a competitive match for his club.
“I think every game he’s played, whichever level it is, he’s done something that’s impressed us,” said Townsend.
“We’ve trained against him with Scotland against the under-20s and he fronted up against our players.”
Scotland squad:
Forwards (26)
Looseheads: Jamie Bhatti, Nathan McBeth, Pierre Schoeman, Rory Sutherland
Hookers: Ewan Ashman, Patrick Harrison, Dylan Richardson
Tightheads: Zander Fagerson, Will Hurd, Elliot Millar Mills, D’Arcy Rae
Locks: Scott Cummings, Alex Craig, Grant Gilchrist, Ewan Johnson, Alex Samuel, Max Williamson
Loose forwards: Josh Bayliss, Gregor Brown, Luke Crosbie, Rory Darge, Jack Dempsey, Freddy Douglas, Matt Fagerson, Ben Muncaster, Jamie Ritchie.
Backs (19)
Scrumhalves: Jamie Dobie, George Horne, Ali Price, Ben White
Flyhalves: Adam Hastings, Tom Jordan, Finn Russell
Centres: Matt Currie, Rory Hutchinson, Huw Jones, Stafford McDowall, Mosese Tuipulotu, Sione Tuipulotu (captain)
Back-three: Darcy Graham, Blair Kinghorn, Harry Paterson, Arron Reed, Kyle Rowe, Duhan van der Merwe
Players ruled out through injury: Javan Sebastian, Murphy Walker, Robbie Smith, Cam Henderson, Sam Skinner, Andy Christie, Euan Ferrie, Cameron Redpath, Kyle Steyn, Ollie Smith
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