Patrick Tuipulotu honors Pacific heritage after regaining captaincy

Blues and All Blacks lock Patrick Tuipulotu was proud to honor his Pacific heritage, following the announcement of his captaincy for the Blues’ upcoming campaign. Tuipulotu regains his role as captain after spending two years struck by injury.

In 2019, Tuipulotu became the fifth player of Pacific heritage to captain the side, remaining as captain until 2021.

He says his Pacific heritage has been important in shaping his leadership qualities.

“It plays a big part in who you are, and that helped my leadership grow as well.

“It’s important to understand your origins, a couple years ago when I was playing my best footy I was going through a stage re-learning my culture, my heritage and my family.”

Nearly half of the Blues’ squad heading into this year are of Pacific heritage, and Tuipulotu they can see the value in appreciating their heritage and its influence on their game.

Tuipulotu regains the captaincy from flanker Dalton Papalii who has held the role for the past two seasons.

Returning to captaincy, Tuipulotu says the legacy of Pacific athletes in the Blues has helped shape him as a leader.

“Before me the legacy has been engrained through other legends like Kevin Mealamu, Jerome Kaino, Charlie Faumuina, a lot of people before me.

“We say it a lot in the rugby space, we’re only caretakers of the jersey. We come in, look after the jersey and part of that is how we lead ourselves.”

The Blues newest head coach Vern Cotter echoed Tuipulotu’s sentiment of being “caretakers” of the jersey, saying the change of captaincy was seamless.

“Dalton was great, we spoke briefly but really clearly around it. He felt that he was only in a caretaker role while Patrick was away.

“I thought it was big from him, he knows he can help and the experience he had last year being captain will give him awareness about it and it’ll be better for the team.”

Cotter says Patricks experience as an All Black especially will give the team an edge, having him lead the side.

“I think the year away has done him good, he’s got a good head on his shoulders. He understands the game, he understands the people around, what the community is and what the Blues are about.

“He’s very easy to communicate with, very simple, short, very quick conversations of where we’re going, not tethering around. I think he’s the ideal person to lead this team on and off the field.”