Despite a statement 27-13 win over Australia, Sione Tuipulotu insists Scotland’s potential is ‘scary’ as they only delivered a ‘six or seven out of ten performance’. 

It was a fairly even first-half at Murrayfield with Scotland leading 7-3 at the interval but they were completely dominant after the break. Gregor Townsend’s men were scintillating at points with Josh Bayliss producing a brilliant finish and Finn Russell capping off a slick team move.

The pressure was on Scotland pre-match to win to ensure it was a successful Autumn Nations Series and they delivered with their third win from four - losing only to world champions South Africa. 

While Tuipulotu was delighted with the win to round off the series, the Scotland captain believes Australia were fortunate to avoid a bigger defeat.

“We’re really happy with that win,” Tuipulotu said. “But I think the scary thing for this group is that it's probably just a six or seven out of ten performance against a pretty good team. We’re the only ones on the training ground. We're the only ones who see what we can pull off. 

“It's just about cleaning up the few errors that we had in that game. I actually think that scoreline could have been a lot bigger. We made a lot of errors on our set-piece and stuff like that when we were clean through. We’re a pretty dangerous team.

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“Throughout the week, we were pretty confident that we were a better team than this Wallaby team. I'm not too sure if it's an upset or something like that or how the media views it, but we were very confident that we were going to be the better team. It's a good win, but I don't think it's the best win or anything. We're looking forward to the Six Nations now.”

There was a touching storyline in the build-up to the Murrayfield encounter with Tuipulotu’s grandmother, Jacqueline Thomson, flying into her homeland from Australia to be reunited with her grandson. 

The Glasgow Warriors star qualifies for Scotland through his Greenock-born gran and she presented him the Hopetoun Cup at full-time with Tuipulotu revealing her hilarious message. 

“She whispered in my ear and said: ‘we got them’,” Tuipulotu laughed. “She lives with my dad at our family home back home. So my dad will pick her up from the airport. She’ll be safe!

On the Murrayfield crowd cheering when his gran was shown on the big screens, Tuipulotu continued: “It does feel weird.  But I feel really blessed because of this all happening. And not just for me. Before the match, I was a  little bit emotional about the fact that her life's just gone full circle. That she's back here watching me play for Scotland and watching me captain Scotland.

“I'm just happy that she gets to have that moment. She moved over to Australia as a young girl and raised my mum with limited stuff. And now she gets to enjoy this, gets to sit in the stand and get some recognition. It makes me so happy.”

Australia arrived at Murrayfield full of confidence after wins against England and Wales. They have been transformed under the tutelage of Joe Schmidt but Tuipulotu insists there was a confidence in the Scotland squad that they were a step up from Australia’s previous Northern Hemisphere opposition. 

He said: “We definitely didn’t expect them to beat them easily, but we didn't really feel like they had played a defensive team like us and we also didn't feel like they had played an attacking team like us. We were very confident during the week.

“We knew we had to prepare well, obviously. We knew they were going to come in with confidence as well, but we knew once we got into the game that we could make them feel pretty uncomfortable with our defence especially.

“We just knew they were going to be a confident outfit coming in. And I said it before the game, it's actually really nice to see Australia back playing some really good rugby under Joe Schmidt. We didn't think they had played a defensive team on this tour like us. And they hadn't defended a team like us. So yeah, we were also confident.”

There was considerable niggle between both sides throughout the encounter with Tuipulotu heavily involved. The Scotland centre was smashed by Joseph Sua'ali'i in the first half with the Australia star fortunate to avoid punishment but Tuipulotu had the last laugh as his opponent sustained a shoulder injury. 

And Australian-born Tuipulotu and several Scotland players gave Sua'ali'i plenty of stick as he trudged dejectedly off the Murrayfield pitch. 

“I didn't really know it was him that hit me,” Tuipulotu said. “I don't know how it looks on camera, but it felt humongous. And when I popped up, I was just kind of looking around at who it was and then I saw that he was on the ground, so I said something to him and then he went off the pitch. That's all I can really say about it.

“I talk a lot during every game. I don't know if you've picked up on that. When you play with your mates, you want to beat them. There was a bit of stick out there, but it makes the game a lot more fun for me anyways.

“We didn't really speak about that at all, to be honest. It's not that we spoke about talking more in the game or anything. It just kind of happened the way it happened. But one thing we did speak about was nullifying the guys that they call upon to make them go forward. You know, guys like Rob Valetini, Angus Bell. And they still had their moments in the game because they're awesome players.”