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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – Australia’s James Slipper waves as he leaves the field during the Bledisloe Cup rugby test between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in Perth, Australia, Saturday, Oct 4, 2025. (AP Photo\/Gary Day,File)<\/p>\n
Only former All Blacks prop Wyatt Crockett, who played 202 matches for the Crusaders, has played more than Slipper, who remains surprisingly fit at 36. Slipper will break that record \u2014 if he plays every match \u2014 when the Brumbies play the Fijian Drua on March 14.<\/p>\n
Slipper made his Super Rugby debut for the Queensland Reds against the New South Wales Waratahs on Feb. 13, 2010. Rhys van Nek who propped the Brumbies\u2019 scrum with Slipper on Sunday was only 10 when the veteran made his debut.<\/p>\n
Slipper went on to play 104 times for the Reds before joining the Brumbies in 2019, playing his 96th match Sunday for the Canberra-based team. He made his test debut against England in 2010 and went on to play 151 test matches, placing him third on the all-time list behind Alun Wyn-Jones of Wales and Sam Whitelock of New Zealand, both also retired.<\/p>\n
Slipper scored his first test try in his 94th test and in 2024 surpassed George Gregan\u2019s record of 139 tests for Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is one of the most respected players in Australian rugby and reaching 200 Super Rugby games is a huge achievement,\u201d Brumbies head coach Stephen Larkham said. \u201cHe continues to set the standard with how he prepares, how he trains and how he competes.\u201d<\/p>\n
A milestone-game try<\/p>\n
Slipper showed skill and vision in scoring his first half try Sunday. He first provided a good ball to fullback Andy Muirhead who breached the Crusaders\u2019 defense, then ran off the shoulder of lock Cadeyrn Neville to score in the left corner.<\/p>\n
The Brumbies scored eight tries to four. The last time they beat the Crusaders in Christchurch current head coach Stephen Larkham was at flyhalf. Only three of the Brumbies\u2019 starters were born when that win was achieved.<\/p>\n
The win \u201cis up there as one of the best,\u201d Slipper told Australian television. \u201cWe knocked off the Blues at Eden Park last year, and that\u2019s a bit of a hoodoo for us. Like most Aussie teams, (we\u2019ve) come here, and we put up a fight, but we never get the chocolates.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, for today to come away with a result, and the way it ended up is a big result for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut one thing I know, I\u2019ve been around a while now, you know, you\u2019ve got to be playing your best rugby towards the end of the season, and that\u2019s what the Crusaders do really well. They seem to come home really strong so that\u2019s our challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Brumbies are now 2-0 for the season ahead of a home match next week against the Auckland-based Blues.<\/p>\n
\u201dWe\u2019ve been to Perth and we\u2019ve come to Christchurch and haven\u2019t played at home yet so coming away with two games has built our confidence,\u201d Slipper said.<\/p>\n
The Crusaders are 0-2 after a first-up loss to the Dunedin-based Highlanders.<\/p>\n
Their loss Sunday \u2014 the second heaviest at home \u2014 resulted from a lack of discipline and threadbare backline defense.<\/p>\n
The Brumbies forwards struggled at times against the Crusaders, especially in lineouts but their backs were devastating in fine conditions on a hard ground. Slipper was prominent around the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time (Slipper) speaks, whether it\u2019s in a huddle or in a team meeting space, everyone listens and takes the advice on board and then he backs that up with consistent performance,\u201d Larkham said prior to the match. \u201cHe\u2019s still playing as good as he\u2019s ever played in his career and still loving his rugby. It\u2019s a pleasure to coach him and the boys love being around him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s match was one of two trans-Tasman contests in Super Rugby\u2019s second round. The Blues beat the Western Force 42-32 in Perth, Australia on Saturday after trailing 17-14 at halftime and the Brumbies squared the ledger on Sunday.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP rugby: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/rugby<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (AP) \u2014 Wallabies prop James Slipper led the ACT Brumbies onto the field Sunday for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-491706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}