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Sione Tuipulotu insisted he will cast aside any emotional attachment to Tonga as he bids to help Scotland get their World Cup campaign off the ground in Nice on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Australia-born centre\u2019s father Fohe is Tongan and the 26-year-old admits he has a \u201clot of love\u201d for a nation that represents part of his heritage.<\/p>\n
However, Tuipulotu is hell-bent on ensuring the Scots put the Pacific islanders to the sword as they look to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s probably a tricky one,\u201d he smiled when asked on Saturday about how he feels going up against his dad\u2019s country. \u201cNo matter how much you try not to think about it, it\u2019s always kind of there in the back of your mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019m fully focused on getting the victory for Scotland tomorrow. I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be emotional during the anthems and stuff.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOf course, I\u2019ve got a lot of love for Tonga, and that side of my heritage. But tomorrow I\u2019m fully focused on doing my best to get a win for Scotland, and get our World Cup back on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fohe will be watching on television from Australia as his son bids to get the better of his home country at the biggest tournament in rugby.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad\u2019s with my little brother at home, he can\u2019t leave him by himself,\u201d said Tuipulotu. \u201cMum\u2019s over here. But my Dad will wake up and watch it, so I\u2019ll wait for his message after the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know he\u2019s got both (Scotland and Tonga) jerseys in the house. I\u2019ll have to ask my little brother which one he\u2019s got on (on Sunday). I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll be going for (supporting) us though.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuipulotu was overwhelmed with emotion when he spoke a fortnight ago about his mother Angelina travelling from Australia to watch him play for Scotland for the first time against South Africa in Marseille.<\/p>\n
He explained on the eve of the Tonga game how she helped lift his spirits after the 18-3 defeat by the Boks.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve got a lot of love for Tonga, and that side of my heritage. But tomorrow I\u2019m fully focused on doing my best to get a win for Scotland<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was actually quite good because my mum doesn\u2019t know anything about rugby so she thought we all played really well,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of knew we didn\u2019t but when I saw her after the game and she said \u2018Oh, you guys all played so well\u2019, it was refreshing and picked me up for that 20 minutes but then I was back to ground zero when we got on the bus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was nice to see my mum after that. That\u2019s the best thing about mums, they pick you up when you are feeling down.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I was really disappointed after the South Africa game. It took me a couple of days, probably took me a week to get over.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we\u2019re over that now. We\u2019ve done our reviews and we\u2019re fully focused now on getting back into Tonga. It\u2019s the perfect game for us to try and enforce our game on to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Scots must win all three of their remaining matches if they are to have a chance of qualifying for the knockout phase, but Tuipulotu is adamant there is no additional pressure on the players as a result of having no margin for error.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think all the games just kind of pose their own bits of pressure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a World Cup, every game poses that bit of pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no easy games in the World Cup, so this game\u2019s the same for us as it was for South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve prepared the same as we did for South Africa and we\u2019re all hoping we can put out a better performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tuipulotu has forged a formidable centre pairing with club-mate Huw Jones for both Scotland and Glasgow. Their partnership will be broken up this weekend, however, as Jones drops to the bench and Gloucester\u2019s Chris Harris takes over the number 13 jersey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve played a lot of rugby with Chris,\u201d said Tuipulotu. \u201cIn the early days when I was getting my first couple of caps for Scotland I was playing under his wing, and I\u2019ve learned a lot from Chris both sides of the ball, but particularly defensively.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhen I first came to Scotland, I was a bit of a rogue defender but I learned a lot from Chris.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always put his arm around me and helped me, and I feel very comfortable with him alongside me. We\u2019re going to out there and have a great performance together.\u201d<\/p>\n