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There will be talk over the next week or two, as there usually is in the buildup to any Six Nations these days, of the possibility of a first Scotland title since five became six at the start of the millennium. The weary will roll their eyes, so familiar is the pang of yet more Scottish disappointment, but if this time, seriously, a title really, really is on the cards, the reason might be found in midfield.
The Scotland centre pairing is so established now, for club and country, it comes with its own compound name: Huwipulotu. As Brangelina could have told them, or any cockapoo, the conferring of a portmanteau indicates a special place in the firmament. Sure enough, Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones are on most rugby folk’s shortlists for the Lions tour this year. The more excitable have even started dubbing them the best centre pairing in the world.
There are a few in green shirts who will challenge them on both counts, not to mention a few in the southern hemisphere who might query the latter accolade, but there is no doubt Huwipulotu work as well together on the field as they trip off the tongue. If Finn Russell is looking as good as he ever has, he owes much of his ascendancy in a Scotland shirt to the maturing of the partnership outside him.
“They’ve both got really well-rounded games,” says their coach at Glasgow, Pete Murchie. “They play really well off each other. They can interchange. They can pass, they can carry, they can use their feet. They can kick. And they’re big defenders as well. They’re experienced players who have been at different places, different environments, around the world.”
A reminder of their cosmopolitan backgrounds might elicit further rolling of the eyes from cynics. Neither component of the compound name exactly screams Scottish, but those cynics can rest assured that, not only are both of Scottish descent, they are passionately so.
Tuipulotu is, as his name suggests, the son of a Tongan, part brought up on the islands but predominantly in the suburbs of Melbourne, whence his mother hails, who is the daughter of an Italian father and Scottish mother. Tuipulotu spent many an hour at his maternal grandmother’s knee, soothed by her Clydeside lilt. Good luck to any cynic querying what that might mean to him.
After spells with the Rebels and in Japan, he found his way to her homeland when he signed for Glasgow in 2021, at the age of 24. He made his Scotland debut a few months later. At the start of this season, he was named captain. One of the most joyous moments of the autumn was his try at Murrayfield against the Wallabies in front of his grandmother, who had flown back from Australia.
Jones’s story is similarly colourful. The spelling of Huw owes itself to Welshness on his father’s side, but he qualifies for Scotland through his mother’s father, not to mention the fact he was born in Edinburgh. His parents, who were teaching in the city, moved the family to England when Jones was two. He started to make his way in rugby when he moved to South Africa for a gap year and stayed to play for the University of Cape Town.
For reasons of which he is himself unsure, he always felt Scottish and made it known at UCT that his flag of choice was a saltire. That was how he came to the attention of a Glasgow coach, scouring the globe for talent via the more obscure reaches of satellite television. Jones graduated from UCT to the Stormers in Super Rugby and made his Scotland debut in 2016, at the age of 22 while still playing in Cape Town. His move to Glasgow followed in 2017.
Thus Scotland secured the pairing in midfield that has become so settled, in a way that previous hopeful pairings never quite did. Scotland’s recent history at centre might act as an analogy for their wider fortunes, full of promise but never establishing themselves. Now Huwipulotu are a reassuring fixture, Scotland’s go-to pairing in each of the past two Six Nations.
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They operate at the heart of Glasgow’s team too, inspiring them to champion status last season, when the Warriors won the United Rugby Championship the hard way – on the road. To beat Munster at Thomond Park in the semi-final, before flying to the Highveld to beat the Bulls at Loftus Versfeld, where mighty Leinster had fallen the week before, serves notice as much as any achievement that the Scottish challenge is one of increasing substance.
On Saturday evening Glasgow take on Harlequins in the Champions Cup at the Stoop, across the road from where Scotland will take on England in round three of the Six Nations next month. In round two, they will have hosted Ireland in what stands out already as the litmus test for any championship ambitions.
Tuipulotu and Jones’s prowess in attack has never been in doubt. Tuipulotu, who is not in the squad for Saturday’s game, is perfectly happy stepping in at first receiver, such are his distribution skills, and his explosiveness at close quarters is as you might expect from one of Tongan descent. Jones, meanwhile, has always looked a million dollars on the wide outside, where his speed and footwork are devastating.
If their graduation to world class is based on anything it is that improved defence. Against Ireland, not to mention at Twickenham this month and next, they will be put through their paces in that department.
But one senses there is more to Huwipulotu than mere technicalities. Sheer passion for the cause radiates from them as if they had come straight down from the Highlands. As does joy. The centre pairing with its own special name will put an end to any cynic’s eye-rolling. If they can do that by winning as well, so much the better.
