{"id":674184,"date":"2026-05-16T06:30:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674184\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T06:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:30:31","slug":"wallabies-legend-starts-campaign-for-retired-test-prop-and-names-bolter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674184\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies legend starts \u2018campaign\u2019 for retired Test prop and names ‘bolter’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Barbarians<\/a><\/p>\n

Legendary Wallabies kicker Matt Burke has launched a campaign for prop James Slipper to come out of international retirement ahead the upcoming three-match start to the new Nations Championship.<\/p>\n

He has also named a back-row bolter that he can see being involved with the squad set to be passed on from Joe Schmidt to Les Kiss once the July matches versus Ireland, France and Italy have been played.<\/p>\n

It was last October when the 36-year-old Slipper stepped away from the Test rugby scene after winning 151st cap when playing for the Wallabies versus the All Blacks<\/a> in Perth.<\/p>\n

He has continued to play at club level since, lining out for the Brumbies and setting an all-time Super Rugby caps record with them, and such has been his form that ex-World Cup winning full-back Burke wants Schmidt to ask the loosehead might he fancy coming out of Test retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can manage James Slipper\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m starting a campaign,\u201d he enthused on Stan Sport\u2019s Rugby Heaven<\/a> when tasked with selecting the Wallabies pack he would like to see picked by Schmidt ahead of the July 4 opener versus Ireland in Sydney. He has been outstanding this year. His early Super Rugby form, and he broke all the milestones and won some cracking games down there in Canberra. It\u2019s amazing how you just need a little bit of level, and I reckon he could do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe not start 30 minutes at the end of the game. I\u2019m talking Angus (Bell) can start\u2026 but I have got to pump him [Slipper] up. So, let\u2019s go Slipper to go 60 minutes, Angus to come on as the super sub at the end. I just like the way he has played, plus I am looking for big bodies in my team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen Joe Schmidt<\/a> talking to him before games sometimes and I reckon there could be a \u2018What do you reckon mate, what are you feeling? I\u2019ll manage you\u2019. As an old guy when I played over in Newcastle, you just manage when you are an old bloke, so you can manage James Slipper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke was joined in the pack picking exercise by Cameron Shepherd, another retired ex-Wallabies<\/a> back. His loosehead preference was for Aiden Ross, the ex-All Black who was capped last year by Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cFront-row for me was quite a difficult one, maybe it was because I played full-back and I have absolutely no idea what the front-row does,\u201d he quipped. \u201cI just have liked what Aiden Ross has done in the last 12 months. Investing in a guy that has got experience but still relatively young. Debuted for the Wallabies last year and did well.<\/p>\n

Wallabies: Joe Schmidt reveals Zac Lomax conversation and what he expects from him \u2018over the next few weeks\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Ex-Wallaby calls on Joe Schmidt to make \u2018controversial pick\u2019 at outside centre and give Joseph Suaalii a very different bench role<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then the combination, (Billy) Pollard maybe not playing his best rugby in Super Rugby Pacific this year but I thought he was brilliant last year for the Wallabies, so I gave him the nod. And then Zane Nonggorr, I\u2019ve made no secret I am a big fan of his. I still think there is room the squad for the likes of Allan Alaalatoa and of course James Slipper, if he wanted to continue playing, but it\u2019s time to bring a little younger blood in in the front row and give these guys a go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from Slipper, Burke had Pollard, Alaalatoa, Nick Frost and Lukhan Salakaia-Loto in his front five in contrast to Shepherd naming Ross, Pollard, Nonggorr, Jeremy Williams and Frost. However, they were both in agreement that Schmidt\u2019s back-row should consist of Rob Valetini, Fraser McReight and Harry Wilson.<\/p>\n

Can anyone else break into that trio? \u201cCharlie Cale has been going great,\u201d reckoned Burke. \u201cHe is injured at the moment, and he is going to be coming back soon. He\u2019s been great, his form and he has shown really good athleticism, old school like a Pierre Spies, quite tall, quite rangy and can hang on width at the same time\u2026<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd chuck in Joe Brial. I reckon he is a little bolter as well, especially when he is under the tutelage of Les Kiss in that back three (at the Reds) that is having a really good combination. Great try on the weekend with Harry out the back and then Brial scored the try. They are options there. The bigger question is who is going to occupy options number 16 to 21 and then do you do go to a six\/two split or a five\/three.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shepherd replied: \u201cBut also you have got someone like Jeremy Williams who is playing six quite a bit for the Force and playing very well. It gives him a little bit more freedom, and then you wonder what you do in the second-row.<\/p>\n

\u201cLukhan Salakaia-Loto offers a different game to someone like Nick Frost, so how important is your set-piece. But if you have got that option at six, then maybe you don\u2019t need him. It\u2019s going to be very interesting to see how the balance is found, and the bench will be a major part in it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Joe Schmidt makes bold revelation on Les Kiss\u2019 involvement in Wallabies selection process<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Legendary Wallabies kicker Matt Burke has launched a campaign for prop James Slipper to come out of international…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,818,1182,57265,325202,44,760,85],"class_list":["post-674184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-james-slipper","tag-matt-burke","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674184","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=674184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}