Nations Championship: No big talk from Scotland in South Africa, just quiet confidence

In a modern sports world where many athletes have become adept at talking too much while saying too little, Sione Twipulotu is a surprising exception to the rule.

The Scotland captain is nothing short of engaging, insightful and brutally honest.

Yet as he prepares his men to take on world champions South Africa at the Nations Championship in Pretoria on Saturday, Twipulotu is refusing to feed the beast while anticipating a famous upset victory over the Springboks.

“I’d like to think maybe our confidence is a bit more calm, to put it in the changing room,” the Glasgow centre-back said.

“There’s no point talking about something like that before the game, because you have to go there and play the world champions in their backyard.

“Maybe it’s a bit of my experience of the last two, three years, it’s better to just leave it on Saturday.

“Obviously I’m confident in my group. I’d be stupid as a captain to sit here and say, ‘I’m not confident in my group and we’re going to lose before the game’. It’s stupid, you know?

“So of course I’m confident in my group, but we’ll focus on ourselves. We know the challenge and we’re really excited about it.”

After Scotland’s crushing defeat to Argentina at Murrayfield last November, Tuipulotu has been in unusually combative form with the media, saying he will no longer publicly announce his team’s ambitions, only to turn to him when they fail to deliver.

Head coach Gregor Townsend and several of his players say the recent surge in results – impressive wins over Wales, England and France in the Six Nations and a stunning win over Argentina last weekend – can be traced back to the honest internal conversation that took place after November’s defeat to the Pumas.

While Twipulotu isn’t making headlines about shocking South Africa at Loftus Versfeld, he believes the Springboks are coming up against a Scottish side that have improved since their last meeting in 2024.

At Murrayfield that day the Scots matched the Boks’ ferocious physicality for long spells, creating plenty of chances and failing to take them before the inevitable late South African charge took the game away from them.

“I think we’re a much different team now,” Twipulotu said. “I’d like to think we’ve kind of evolved, I think, into the team we want to become.

“We’ve seen parts of it in the Six Nations and I was really proud of the performance away from home (against Argentina) last week.”