Wallabies prop Taniela Tupou has had an unexpected companion on his June tour this year - his mum, Loisi.
Loisi watched Tupou’s first Test on home soil in Brisbane, alongside some of his siblings, and he thought she would stay up in Queensland.
But once he made the first Test team, and the Wallabies took out the matcht, she was desperate to travel to Melbourne.
And now, she’ll likely be joining him in Sydney, when Australia looks to clinch a series win over Ireland.
“I was thinking of leaving her in Brisbane but then I got in the team, she came to Brisbane and she came here, why not bring her to the last game in Sydney?,” he said.
Tupou looked for his family when Brisbane when David Pocock scored the match-sealing try and when the 22-year-old notched his first international five-pointer on Saturday, he looked for Loisi again.
“I trust I scored that try, because there was two hands under it and I just, god knows what I was doing, down to get the ball to the tryline and the ref was right there to see it and I was thinking of my mum straight away because she's here from Brisbane and got up and just tried to look for her and went, "That's for you, Mum'.,” he said
It wasn’t long before he was brought back into the action, focused on trying to help steal an unlikely victory.
“She was jumping up, but then I was like it's the next moment,” he said.
“(I thought) We need to get the kick off and try and score another try, but we didn't, so (we’ll) obviously come back next week a lot stronger, got to work harder on some of our mistakes and we should be good next week.”
Next week’s Sydney Test will be the biggest of Tupou’s career so far, and his mind is all focused on striving for perfection in the series decider.
“I think everyone knows what they need to work on, we're going to just forget about that one and just focus on what we need to work on and everything will come later on,” he said.
“Everyone needs to know their job and need to do everything perfect for next weekend and everything will come after in the scoreline.
“If we do our job right, we'll be able to take care of the score.”
The Wallabies take on Ireland in the third June Test in Sydney on Saturday June 23, kicking off at 8:05pm AEST, LIVE on FOX SPORTS, Channel Ten and via RUGBY.com.au RADIO.
