18 January, 2026, 4:29 pm Central - 29°C Rain

Grandmother surprises Tuipulotu brothers halfway across the world

Grandmother surprises Tuipulotu brothers halfway across the world

By Alipate Narawa
21/11/2024
Source : Scottish Rugby

Mosese Tuipulotu and his brother Sione were taken by complete surprise after their grandmother made a secret journey from Australia to Edinburgh to watch them represent Scotland.

The Melbourne-born siblings - who thought they were going to meet a fan - walked into the dressing room at the national Murrayfield Stadium on Tuesday to find 77-year-old Jacqueline Thomson, who had been flown over by Skyscanner, Scotland's official travel partner.

Greenock-born Jacqueline, who left Scotland when she was a child, is the reason both players are eligible for the national team.

She will watch Edinburgh centre Mosese play for Scotland A against Chile on Saturday before heading to Murrayfield on Sunday to watch brother Sione captain the Scots in their final Test of the November series against the Wallabies.

Mosese says it was awesome actually, as he had left Australia this season to sign for Edinburgh.

He says it was a massive surprise just because he and his brother did not know anything about it.

He says they did pretty well to keep it under wraps but it was a pretty emotional one also just because when he left Australia to move to Scotland for rugby, he never quite knew when he was going to see his family again.

The Tuipulotu siblings never believed their gran would ever be able to watch them play in Scotland given her age and health.

The 23-year-old admitted her presence for this weekend's matches has merely added to the emotion of a November campaign in which he earned his first national team call-up and his 27-year-old brother was appointed Scotland captain.

He says she has kind of gone a full circle as she left Scotland as a young girl and now she's back here where she grew up and being able to watch both her boys pulling on a Scotland jersey, adding it will be cool for her.

Mosese says it will be her first time watching them play for Scotland, but the first time watching Sione in a while, probably since school, so it'll be special for her.

Mosese has not featured in any of the three Tests so far and will not play against Australia either.

Scotland plays Australia at 1.40am Monday at Murrayfield.

Source: rugby.com.au

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