Edinburgh: One is among the world’s highest-paid rugby stars, armed with instinctive skills and the capacity to humiliate defences. The other is an Australian-raised Lion who didn’t get a crack at home and would love nothing more than leading Scotland to victory over the Wallabies.
Together, the No.10-12 combination of Finn Russell and Sione Tuipulotu represents arguably the biggest threat to the Australian team when they return to Murrayfield on Monday morning (AEDT). And the Wallabies are aware.
“[Tuipulotu] and Finn Russell together, almost 150 caps together, there’s a great combination between those two,” Wallabies assistant coach John Ulugia said. “Both being in the British and Irish Lions shows that they’re class players.
“He’s playing against Australia, so [Tuipulotu] is going to get motivated.”
The Wallabies take on the Scots in Edinburgh for the first time since 2024, when the Joe Schmidt side was flying after wins over England and Wales.
But Tuipolotu turned in a superb performance as Scotland skipper against Australia, and led the hosts to a 27-13 win. On a heady day, he scored a try, won a points victory in a personal battle with Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and was presented the Hopetoun Cup by his 77-year-old Scottish grandmother, Jaqueline Thomson, who had been flown over from Australia by a sponsor and was feted by the crowd.
Tuipulotu grew up in Melbourne and played for the Junior Wallabies and the Rebels, but having stalled at the franchise, he elected to move to Scotland. Via his heritage from his “Greenock granny”, Tuipulotu debuted for the Scots in 2021 and progressed to captain in 2024.
“He’s class,” Wallabies halfback Ryan Lonergan said. “He’s super powerful and obviously a great leader for them. The way that he can square up their attack as well is something pretty special. We’ll look to shut him down.”
Russell, who earns almost $2 million a year at Bath, appears to have a ball on a string at times, and is one of the game’s most naturally gifted playmakers. He once jokingly referred to himself as the “Lionel Messi of rugby”, but it had enough truth to stick.
“He’s quality – we know if we give him time on the ball, then he’ll make the right decision more than he doesn’t,” Lonergan said. “So, yeah, there’s a big focus on him.
“It comes back to the principles we want to set in ‘D’. If we can get that speed to set and a bit of time in the collision, then that goes a long way to shutting down the multiphase attack, because we can get set and [use] a bit of line speed, and put pressure on someone like Russell.”
In what could be either a good sign for Australia – or a bad one – Russell had an off day in Scotland’s 43-21 defeat against New Zealand at Murrayfield on Sunday, and coach Gregor Townsend was comfortable saying as much publicly.
“Finn has been fine for Bath over the first few weeks of the season, but it wasn’t his best game against New Zealand,” Townsend said. “He will know that himself. He will be disappointed and he will definitely want to put that right next week. He’s been very, very good for us over a long period. He will want to show that against Australia.”
Saying “no player is undroppable”, Townsend promised to make changes and put the team on notice.
Townsend said he believed the Wallabies were a better side than the one that lost in Edinburgh in 2024, but he did make the comments before England posted a record score on them last week.
“It’s a healthier squad than when we played them a couple of years ago,” he said. “It seems like they’ve got a lot of their top-line players fit. They’re probably playing more rugby. When you think of Australia, they do play rugby and keep hold of the ball.
“They’ve had some Test match experience recently. They played the All Blacks twice, they’ve played South Africa, they’ve played Argentina.
“So they’ve been building cohesion, so we would expect a tough Test match for sure. Our performance against New Zealand wouldn’t be good enough to win against Australia, so we’re going to have to be better.”
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Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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