Gregor Townsend names Sione Tuipulotu as new Scotland captain

Gregor Townsend names Sione Tuipulotu as new Scotland captain for Autumn Nations Series

Transcript

00:00Yeah, we feel he's been a key leader for us now for the last couple of seasons. He thrives in that leadership role.

00:08We've seen that with Glasgow, but also in the summer tour.

00:14And we felt this was the right time to name one captain. Last year we wanted to grow our depth of leaders,

00:20with co-captains through the Six Nations, and then the summer tour with other players, we've got that opportunity.

00:27And we still have some real strong leaders to support Sione, but we feel he's the right man right now for the team.

00:35Do you hope and expect this to become a long-term permanent thing, or is it just a trial at the moment?

00:40No, I would hope that he'll just get better and better and the team will get around him.

00:45But you know there's injuries, there's times where the players aren't available, but you hope this is not a hope.

00:54Rory and Finn obviously led the team in the Six Nations, was there a reason for moving away from that?

01:00Yeah of course, and the more and more Sione's done in that leadership role,

01:06I think Rory is developing as a young player, the captain's experience was great for him.

01:13And you can provide that support to Sione.

01:17In terms of Finn, we also are conscious that he's got a lot of responsibility in our game,

01:23and in charge of our attack, our decision-making,

01:29so that was in my mind of not giving him that extra burden at times of being a captain and worrying about so much during the week.

01:38We want him to play his game and lead the team from an attacking sense.

01:44I think his relationship with Sione has really blossomed in the last couple of years on the field and off the field.

01:49They connect really well, and I know Sione will be leaning on Finn and Rory and others to help him lead the team.