Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu: Moving to Japan saved my career
- Mark Pickering
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu has credited his three-year stay with Yamaha Jubilo as turning his career around ahead of his move to Glasgow Warriors during the pandemic.
Australia-born Tuipulotu, 29, who qualifies for Scotland through his Greenock-born grandmother, struggled to make his mark at Super Rugby side the Melbourne Rebels and accepted an offer to try and reinvigorate his career in 2018 at Yamaha (now Shizuoka Blue Revs) in the Top League (now League One).
The teak-tough midfielder made a major impact during his thee seasons in Shizuoka while playing alongside the likes of his cousin and Tongan international Viliami Tahitu’a, Japan legend Ayumu Goromaru and Springboks star Kwagga Smith.
Tuipulotu, an integral player for his club in the URC and for Gregor Townsend’s Scotland, was mostly deployed on the wing for Yamaha and credits his time in Japan as helping him to rediscover his passion for the game.
“My career started really fast in Melbourne, I think when I reached my first road block in Melbourne I probably wasn’t really ready for it,” the British and Irish Lion told South African rugby podcast Behind The Ruck.
“For someone to tell me no, and because I had been playing since I was young and debuted as an 18-year-old, I played three years for Aussie u20s, I was perhaps over confident at that age.
“Moving away to Japan probably saved my career in terms of falling back in love with the sport and why I started playing it.
“It wasn’t for money or for contracts, it was just because I liked competing and when I started doing all that in Japan I thought my move to Scotland came at the right time as a man.
Tuipulotu, who won the URC with Glasgow in 2024 and has helped Franco Smith’s side to book a play-off spot this season, thinks his Japan experience and the timing of his move to Scotland was vital in sending his career on an upward trajectory.
“If I did that move (to Scotland) a few years earlier maybe it wouldn’t have worked out. I moved to Scotland at the right time and things started moving accordingly and coaches like Gregor Townsend and my first coach Danny Wilson helped to direct me in the right direction.
“Japan helped me a lot because of the style of the competition it is. Sometimes we would kick off a game in the Top League at 11am or 11.30 or 12 and that felt to me like I was a kid again.
“It didn’t feel like a 7.45pm game and where it’s so important. I still think when I play Test matches that I’m like a kid playing rugby and that’s when I’m at my best.
“I understand 80,000 people are watching, the country is behind you and it’s very important especially being Test captain but I feel like you don’t work your whole life to get to that point and start treating the game differently.
“I still do that today, if I feel like I’m not enjoying it then I try to bounce back. I just have go out here and do my best with my friends.
“That’s when I have my most fun, I can be creative and play what is in front of me.”
Title-chasing Glasgow host Cardiff in the penultimate round of the regular season on Friday.
Tuipulotu will return to the Test stage in July when Scotland face Argentina in Cordoba before facing back-to-back world champions South Africa in Pretoria and hosting Fiji in Edinburgh on 18 July.
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