‘I was cooked’: Tupou emptied the tank in Twickenham and awaits Italy

After a tough loss against England in Twickenham, Taniela Tupou’s performance provided some desperately needed positives for a team in need of them ahead of facing a confident Italy this Saturday in Udine.

Tupou’s all-action performance in attack and defence may have looked good from the sidelines, but the man himself in the arena wasn’t fully convinced.

“It’s funny because I got off the field last week [against England] and the boys were all like, ‘you look good out there’, but I was wrecked in the warm-up,” Tupou joked.

“I don’t know how you guys said I looked good, but my word, I was two minutes in and I was cooked, and then somehow finished 45 minutes.”

Tupou’s scrummaging has been a consistent strength of his game, but against England, he showed the variety of his skill set, including a desperately needed counter-ruck on the seventh minute in London to turnover possession for the Wallabies when under pressure.

Tupou may have only touched the ball four times, but he still managed to carry it 17 metres, the third-highest from the Wallabies forwards in London. Despite plaudits from his teammates, the future Racing 92 prop still wasn’t content with his performance against England.

“I just feel for myself I didn’t really do much, but it’s something I’ll be looking to be better at this week, and I thought Allan [Alaalatoa] and the guys came off the bench and did really well against them [England].”

Tupou was one of the current Wallabies who played in the famous defeat in Florence that ultimately cost former coach Dave Rennie his job. Given the chastening defeat against England on Saturday, Tupou is not particularly keen to remember his last visit to Italy and another difficult day for Australian rugby.

“To be honest, I can’t remember what I did yesterday, never mind in the [last Italy] game, but I know we lost,” Tupou said.

“It’s a lesson for us to learn going into this game and not taking it lightly. They’re [Italy] a good team and you can see what they’ve done against South Africa and the Six Nations against England.”

Although Tupou can’t remember the exact details of what happened on the field in Florence, he remembers an executive from Rugby Australia coming to speak in the changing room, followed by Rennie. The team then travelled to Dublin, where Ireland beat them by three points.

“Hopefully, we don’t have to go through that this week and get a good win,” Tupou said.

“We want to win this game, whatever that looks like, I’ll leave the selection to Joe [Schmidt] and the staff, but I’m thinking they’ll pick the best team available and we’ll treat Italy just like England and Ireland and France.

“They’re not easy to beat so it’s a must-win for us, so I’m expecting a full-strength Wallabies team this week.”

The Wallabies trained on Monday afternoon in perfect sunshine and blue skies in Udine, which is set to be the case all week.

There are no injuries reported from the England defeat, with Schmidt likely to give Carter Gordon his first opportunity to play for the Wallabies since the 2023 World Cup.

Tupou isn’t looking to the future – he’s simply enjoying the present in Italy, which includes dominating the Wallabies’ low-stakes card school, pulling pranks on his teammates and training hard.

“I enjoy everything, including the travelling. Some things used to upset me, not anymore; I’m just living life and enjoying it, trying to enjoy everything I do,” Tupou said.

“Like I said before, there are only a few of these [Tests] I have left in me, so I enjoy it while I can.”

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