{"id":724709,"date":"2026-01-27T18:44:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/724709\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:44:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T18:44:26","slug":"its-up-to-us-to-win-back-the-trust-of-fans-scotland-captain-sione-tuipulotu-keen-to-atone-for-disappointment-of-autumn-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/724709\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s up to us to win back the trust of fans’… Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu keen to atone for disappointment of Autumn Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"

By GRAEME MACPHERSON <\/p>\n

Published: 13:00 EST, 27 January 2026 | Updated: 13:19 EST, 27 January 2026 <\/p>\n

Sione Tuipulotu admits trying to win over disgruntled supporters will be one of Scotland\u2019s objectives during the Six Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gregor Townsend<\/a>\u2019s side head into the competition under a cloud following a dismal autumn series that saw them beaten by New Zealand before capitulating against Argentina.<\/p>\n

The late collapse against the Pumas\u00a0\u2014 that saw them ship a 21-0 lead to slump to a 33-24 loss \u2014 led to the team being booed off at Murrayfield by an unhappy home support.<\/p>\n

Those defeats, on top of Scotland\u2019s uninspiring Six Nations record overall, mean few are tipping them to challenge for the title this year.<\/p>\n

And Tuipulotu conceded that trying to regain the backing of their own public will be one of the main targets instead.<\/p>\n

The Scotland captain said: \u2018I think the other teams deserve the expectation more than us. And I think that may be a good thing for us not to carry the expectation of everyone.<\/p>\n

\"Scotland <\/p>\n

Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu is happy his team aren’t weighed down by expectation<\/p>\n

\"Tuipulotu <\/p>\n

Tuipulotu and head coach Gregor Townsend attend the Six Nations launch in Edinburgh<\/p>\n

\"Argentina's <\/p>\n

Argentina’s surprise win at Murrayfield saw Scotland end 2025 on something of a low note<\/p>\n

\u2018To go and play games and earn the trust of each other, and also probably regaining some of the trust from the public, is something that I\u2019m really excited to do.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think a lot of them probably have the right to feel like that as supporters. And this is something that I take responsibility for. When you\u2019re the captain, you\u2019re at the front of the line when things go well, which is probably how it went the previous autumn when we beat Australia and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u2018But you\u2019re also at the front of the line when things don\u2019t go well and I\u2019m fully on board with that. That\u2019s my role as captain.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are the men in the arena. And it\u2019s important that we remember that we\u2019re the ones that go out there and have to wear the armour and, I suppose, wear the pressure and everything like that.<\/p>\n

\u2018And that\u2019s what I love about rugby. It\u2019s important that we also internalise in the group how we think about ourselves, not take public perception in, because perception will change when results come, and that\u2019s when you see things flip pretty quickly.<\/p>\n

\u2018We got served up the same criticism when maybe we were struggling to get those wins at Glasgow. But it\u2019s funny how quickly public perception changes.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s often the people that probably ride you the hardest that come back and check when you\u2019re doing well. And now that we\u2019ve been doing well for Glasgow the same people are riding our coattails a little bit. So, it\u2019s funny to see that dynamic and I\u2019m hoping that will be the same dynamic for Scotland.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"Glasgow <\/p>\n

Glasgow hooker Gregor Hiddleston has been in inspired form this season and could feature<\/p>\n

Townsend has called up Gregor Hiddleston as injury cover for Dave Cherry after initially omitting the Glasgow hooker from the squad. And Tuipulotu revealed what he said to Hiddleston before the call came.<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018I know there\u2019s been a big uproar about him not getting picked but, as a team-mate of Gregor\u2019s at Glasgow, I said to him when he wasn\u2019t selected, \u201cJust keep doing what you\u2019re doing, mate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m really proud of the young core at Glasgow that have stepped forward into their senior roles. That jersey was Johnny Matthews\u2019 for a long time and there were always people calling for Johnny Matthews to be in the [Scotland] squad.<\/p>\n

\u2018Johnny has obviously had his troubles with injuries. Now Gregor\u2019s taken a step forward and taken that responsibility. We don\u2019t win these games that we won during Autumn and Six Nations if those young boys don\u2019t take the step forward, and they have, and I can\u2019t tell you how proud I am.\u2019<\/p>\n

Scotland have also called up scrum-half Gus Warr due to injury concerns over Jamie Dobie, while flanker Liam McConnell has returned to Edinburgh for treatment on a rib injury.<\/p>\n

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\n ‘It’s up to us to win back the trust of fans’… Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu keen to atone for disappointment of Autumn Tests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By GRAEME MACPHERSON Published: 13:00 EST, 27 January 2026 | Updated: 13:19 EST, 27 January 2026 Sione Tuipulotu…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,92,4884,4204,712,93,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-724709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-rugbyunion","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115968545035387568","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}