Those pressed into action representing their respective countries at the Six Nations launch in Edinburgh on Monday certainly got their steps in.
It was almost impossible for Sione Tuipulotu, Antoine Dupont, Jamie George and the rest not to keep bumping into each other as they were ushered from one media station to the next, like supermarket shoppers forced to smile awkwardly every time they pass an acquaintance in the aisles.
Familiarity among Six Nations rivals is not a new concept, however, given the teams face each other every year and many of the players operate in the same league or even for the same club.
For those who have also had the honour of representing the British and Irish Lions, then there is an added dimension to those relationships where players who were team-mates for months on end suddenly become the enemy once more.
It is an angle Tuipulotu is now wrestling with having been part of Andy Farrell’s touring party to Australia last summer. The Scotland captain is an amiable, outgoing sort who you can imagine mixing easily with new colleagues but also a ferocious competitor on the field, someone who wants to win at all cost. So, is it a bit strange running into your ‘frenemies’ again?
‘Oh, no, it’s not edgy at all, to be honest,’ insisted the Glasgow centre. ‘It’s edgy on the field, definitely. But I know Jamie George from over the summer. Obviously, Caelan [Doris] missed out on the tour through injury but I’ve known him from playing against him. And they’re all competitors, you know what I mean?
Tuipulotu celebrates Lions success with England’s Owen Farrell and Ireland coach Andy Farrell
Tuipulotu joined his fellow Six Nations captains at the tournament’s launch event in Edinburgh
The Scotland skipper says he is relishing the prospect of going up against his Lions ‘frenemies’
‘It’s a weird thing because you get along with them so well. But then the other side of you is like, “I’ve got to hate you in a little bit”. So that’s the reality of it all. I don’t think there’s any psyching people out in press conferences or anything like that. I’ll wait until game day for that.’
Tuipulotu believes being part of the Lions touring party to the country of his birth gives him some added insight into the players Scotland will face over the next few months but not any advantage.
‘[It helps] a tiny bit, I suppose. But they’ve also got insight into you so it works both ways. There are so many preconceived ideas about how people play. But when you’re in there and getting coached by the Irish coaches or the English coaches, it’s interesting to see how they go about their business. And, yeah, you do pick up a lot of things.
‘And I think most importantly, on the Lions tour, you learn a lot. I know we’re all at the pinnacle of the sport by the time we make the Lions but it’s crazy how much more you can learn by the time you get to a Lions tour. So that was the main thing for me.
‘I think about the best players for the Lions on that tour but also the last couple of tours, the likes of Tadhg Furlong, Tadhg Beirne, Tom Curry…. their ownership of their performances in big games is why they were rewarded with the Test caps.
‘And I think that’s the most important thing — your performance in big games is what gets big results. That’s what we need for Scotland.
‘And I’m hoping the boys that have played in the summer for the Lions and had successful tours can bring that experience for us to win big games.’
Finn Russell and Kyle Steyn get some training in ahead of a tournament they will both be key in
The hope must be that the Glasgow Warriors factor can play a role, too. It is no surprise that 20 players from Scotstoun have now been called up by Gregor Townsend following Gregor Hiddleston’s overdue nod, given they are one of the form teams in Europe.
You could almost make a case for starting 14 Warriors with Finn Russell at No 10. And even if Townsend won’t go quite that far with his team selection, Tuipulotu hopes the energy and confidence the Glasgow players have brought into camp will have a positive effect on a Scotland side in need of a lift.
‘Club rugby is not the same as Test rugby but you can take confidence from it,’ he added. ‘And the way that we’ve been playing and problem-solving as a leadership group, as senior leaders, but also young boys as well, playing in big games.
‘I can’t credit them enough, you know? And it’s important that we take the confidence into these big Test matches.
‘Probably the margin for error in Test rugby is a lot smaller than in club rugby. So it might be easy to problem-solve at club rugby and prove to be quite difficult at Test rugby but they’re the answers that we have to search for.
‘I believe we can bring those skills that we’ve picked up at Glasgow and which have won us big games into a Test environment, which is higher pressure, more demanding.
‘But that’s the reality of Test rugby, and that’s why we play. So I’ll be leaning on those boys heavily, our leaders at Glasgow, and also the leaders from other environments.’
Tuipulotu is just glad to be bang in the middle of it all again. This time last year he was preparing to head to Rome for the 2025 Six Nations launch when he suffered a pectoral muscle that would sideline him for the next three months. And although he tried to contribute from the sidelines, he admits it wasn’t a fun experience.
Tuipulotu celebrates a Huw Jones try against France at Murrayfield in the 2024 Six Nations
‘It was horrible, to be honest. I’m not the best observer of games. I got really frustrated in the crowd. I went to Twickenham. The only one I didn’t go to was the last game in Paris. But I went to the rest of them and, yeah, it was weird observing as a spectator.
‘It’s probably the first tournament I’ve ever done that. And you get to see things that you probably don’t notice when you’re playing because of the pressure of the tournament and things like that.
‘But this will be my first time as captain in the Six Nations and I’m proud to do it, really motivated to have our best tournament yet. It’s exciting, all the boys meeting up again.
‘It’s been a long three months. It’s felt like forever, to be honest. So, I’ve been excited for a long time to get back into the Six Nations environment.’
