{"id":444509,"date":"2026-02-25T09:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/444509\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T09:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T09:13:09","slug":"prem-cup-win-would-be-cherry-on-top-for-kepu-tuipulotu-in-family-feud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/444509\/","title":{"rendered":"PREM Cup win would be ‘cherry’ on top for Kepu Tuipulotu in family ‘feud’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kepu Tuipulotu hopes to celebrate winning a new \u2018multi-year\u2019 contract with Bath<\/a> by helping the club into the semi-finals of the PREM Rugby Cup, whilst also getting one over on his big sister.<\/p>\n

Bath face West Country rivals Gloucester<\/a> in what is effectively a winner-takes-all clash at The Rec on Saturday, and had she not been training with Wales, there\u2019s a good chance barnstorming prop Sisilia Tuipulotu<\/a> would have been in the crowd wearing her Gloucester kit goading her brother.<\/p>\n

Sisilia pulled off the stunt back in October when Kefu came off the bench in a 38-17 win for the Blue, Black and White and the Bath hooker hopes to have the last laugh again.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe came down to support me in full Gloucester kit so that was\u00a0 quite good, to get banter from her,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have these kind of family feuds; she is quite patriotic to Gloucester and I am quite patriotic to Bath, so it\u2019ll be a good run out going against them this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure she\u2019ll be watching on the telly and I\u2019ll get some stick from her after the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying Gloucester is quite a big game for us, same as any team we take on, but there\u2019s an extra edge around a West Country derby, it is quite intense, so it should be pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family feuds are nothing new in the Tuipulotu household, which is rich in rugby history.<\/p>\n

In addition to Sisilia, the rest of his family have strong ties to Wales. Kepu\u2019s father, Sione, played for Newport, cousin Carwyn Tuipulotu<\/a> played for Wales<\/a> U20s, and Wales legend Taulupe Faletau<\/a> is one of many cousins to have excelled at the sport, which include Scotland<\/a> skipper, Sione Tuipulotu.<\/p>\n

However, whenever Wales played England<\/a> as a kid, Kepu was the only one cheering on the team in white, despite being born in Newport, mainly to wind the rest of his family up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted rivalry between family members,\u201d Kepu said in a recent Rugby Journal interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone would be, \u2018Wales, Wales, Wales\u2019, and I\u2019d be, \u2018come on England\u2019. I remember one game, when Elliot Daly<\/a> scored the winner, they were all getting louder and louder, \u2018Wales are going to win this one\u2019. Then Ford gets it to Daly, he scores, I\u2019m out of my seat! Everyone was, \u2018we\u2019re going to kill this guy\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked to elaborate on this in today\u2019s chat with RugbyPass, the 20-year dynamic hooker added:\u00a0\u201cI was a proper menace, proper annoying when I was younger. I was so competitive. Whatever my sisters did, I just wanted to win. My older sisters would just give up and let me win and I would try and rub it into their faces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just couldn\u2019t keep my mouth shut. I\u2019d just go around causing havoc. I\u2019ve aways been the annoying younger brother to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nowadays, it is gnarled Bath veteran and fellow hooker, Tom Dunn<\/a>, and other senior players who keep the young whippersnapper in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got Duinnie and it\u2019s the same with Joe Cokanasiga<\/a>, who is also quite in charge of me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the senior lads have been a big help, they keep me in line, keep me in check.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am still 20 and still learning my trade so having these older lads look after me and help me is vital to my development.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once his talent became obvious, the former Harrow school pupil stayed true to England, even turning down an invitation by Warren Gatland to train with the senior Wales team to pursue international honours on the other side of the Severn Bridge.<\/p>\n

He has been capped by England U20s, and can see a clear pathway to the Test team, with his mate Viliame \u2018Billy\u2019 Sela having already received a call-up by Steve Borthwick.<\/p>\n

\u201cBill is like a brother I never had in terms of how close we are. It was quite funny, he got called up to the England squad when we were playing FIFA at my house. He stopped and said, \u2018I think I am in the England squad.\u2019 I was like, \u2018mate, that\u2019s sick.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing him take every opportunity with how he\u2019s gone this season makes me massively proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

At some stage in the future, Tuipulotu could be packing down in the England front-row with one of Sela\u2019s tight-head rivals,\u00a0 Joe Heyes.<\/p>\n

Heyes was once a Nottingham Forest academy player between the sticks, and unbeknown to his colleagues at Bath, Tuipulotu once shared the same sporting dream.<\/p>\n

As a Man United supporter, Edwin van der Sar was one of his idols. \u201cMy first passion was football, I was a goalkeeper, I played for Cheltenham Town academy. But as I grew up and ate a bit more food, football started to go out the window and rugby took over,\u201d he revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were quite enjoyable days. I think I was the only player that wanted to get dirty, diving for the ball, left and right.<\/p>\n

\u201cAround 10\/11, I was still football mad, I was still trying to be the next big thing in goalkeeping, but my Uncle kind of got me into rugby. One day I said I\u2019m going to football training and he said, \u2018no. no, you are coming to rugby training instead.\u2019<\/p>\n

As for his new deal at Bath, the former London Irish<\/a> prospect is delighted that he has followed in the footsteps of recently re-signed stars such as Tom de Glanville and Quinn Roux<\/a> and pledged his future to the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cRenewing my contract with Bath is a massive achievement for me and my family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing straight out of school and signing for Bath was a surreal feeling as these last two years I\u2019ve been here I\u2019ve learnt a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved playing at The Rec and I\u2019ve really made Bath my home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kepu Tuipulotu hopes to celebrate winning a new \u2018multi-year\u2019 contract with Bath by helping the club into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-444509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}