Pull together in Cuppers, otherwise one is sunk (6,2)

'pull' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with contact as well as being verbs in their base form.
Perhaps you can see a link between them that I don't see?

'together in cuppers otherwise one is sunk' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'one' could be 'a' (a thing is one thing) and 'a' is found within the answer.
an anagram of 'cuppers' is 'scrpeup' which is located in the left over letters.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?