{"id":190918,"date":"2025-10-05T05:12:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T05:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/190918\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T05:12:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T05:12:15","slug":"james-slipper-reflects-on-his-final-wallabies-test-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/190918\/","title":{"rendered":"James Slipper reflects on his final Wallabies Test match"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wallabies prop James Slipper<\/a> joined an elite club of only two others last weekend when he reached 150 Test matches for Australia, against the All Blacks<\/a> at Eden Park.<\/p>\n

A week later, he announced his retirement from international rugby after a 15-year career in the green and gold jersey. But Joe Schmidt and the Wallabies will be gutted not to have finished Slipper\u2019s career with a victory in Perth.<\/p>\n

Slipper, who tells reporters in Perth that he\u2019s a huge introvert, says that it\u2019s been a very long week with all of the attention around him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s been a long week, actually, like, once the decision was made, I\u2019m quite an introvert, so my phone was going off quite a bit this week, which was a bit awkward for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut yeah, I think when the decision was made, it probably took a while to get made, and then once it was made, it was probably a little bit easier.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now that it\u2019s done, it\u2019s done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old explains that the original plan was to retire after the British and Irish Lions<\/a> series earlier this year, but Schmidt and his coaching staff convinced him to stay on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was asked to keep going, and I think for us, transitioning me out over the Rugby Championship<\/a> with a couple of big games there, obviously the All Blacks and Springboks, the Argentines, are no slouches either.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s pretty hard competition, and we just thought it was the best thing for me just keep going a little bit longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing 151-Test matches is no mean feat, and Slipper describes his love for the green and gold jersey as \u2018patriotic\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust in general it means everything. Like I\u2019ve always said I\u2019m a proud Aussie and very patriotic when it comes to playing for my country.<\/p>\n

Rugby Championship <\/p>\n

P<\/p>\n

W<\/p>\n

L<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

PF<\/p>\n

PA<\/p>\n

PD<\/p>\n

BP T<\/p>\n

BP-7<\/p>\n

BP<\/p>\n

Total<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"South <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

19 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"New <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

19 <\/p>\n

3 <\/p>\n

\"Australia\"\/ <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

11 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

\"Argentina\"\/ <\/p>\n

6 <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

4 <\/p>\n

0 <\/p>\n

10 <\/p>\n

\u201cSo in a world where it\u2019s kind of hard to be patriotic. Yeah that\u2019s me, I bleed gold, so I really enjoy playing for my country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite hanging up the boots in terms of representing his country, Slipper isn\u2019t done just yet, as he\u2019s still signed with the Brumbies<\/a> for the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific<\/a> season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably why it doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s, I\u2019ve cut ties with rugby, because I am still playing for the Brumbies next year, and I\u2019m looking forward to that like I really enjoy Super Rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get to spend time with my family most nights, and there\u2019s not as much trouble with Super Rugby as as there is with Test footy.<\/p>\n

Longtime scrum guru and Wallabies assistant coach Mike Cron has been trying to convince Slipper to get into scrum coaching in the future, something which Slipper seems open too.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo would I be encouraged? It\u2019s something I\u2019d be interested in. Yeah, for sure, it\u2019s just how that looks going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies prop James Slipper joined an elite club of only two others last weekend when he reached 150…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-190918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}