James Slipper opens up on what continues to motivate him to keep playing for Wallabies as he prepares for British & Irish Lions
James Slipper’s decade-long quest for revenge against the Lions, along with a desire to give everything for the green and gold, is enough motivation for Australia’s most capped player to put off retirement for now.
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Australia’s most capped rugby player, James Slipper, plans to “empty the tank” before his Test career comes to an end.
The 36-year-old prop will extend his lead as the Wallabies’ all-time appearance leader – having surpassed George Gregan last year – if he plays against the British & Irish Lions next weekend.
Slipper, who has played 144 Tests for Australia, and fellow veteran James O’Connor could join George Smith as the only Wallabies of the professional era to play in successive Lions series.
Slipper signed a one-year contract extension with the Brumbies earlier this year, to play through until the end of the 2026 Super Rugby season.
But his time in the national jersey is unclear, as the toll of packing down scrums for more than 15 years in the Test arena led him to consider retirement last year.
“The motivation for me is all about how I’m performing, how I’m playing,” Slipper said.
“If I’m contributing to the team, I’ve always said that I wanted to empty the tank for Australian rugby.
“That’s always been my philosophy around when I’m going to end. I wouldn’t say the Lions was the factor of my decision, but it’s definitely hard to pass on a Lions tour.
Slipper wasn’t sure if he was still keen to play for the Wallabies following the disastrous 2023 World Cup campaign under Eddie Jones, and back then it seemed implausible he’d still be around for the Lions series.
“I’d say it looked far away only because we had new coaches come in, last year was a bit of a rebuild for us,” Slipper said.
“There was a fair bit of water that had to go under the bridge and a lot of hard work. You can never look too far in front of yourself in rugby because you don’t know what the team’s going to look like or the landscape itself. To be here today is a special one for me.
“I like contributing. If my body and my mind is in a place where I can contribute and perform at a standard that I’m happy with, I’ll always keep going.
“There’s plenty of work that goes in behind the scenes. It doesn’t look like it, but it goes in to get me up for a game. We’ll see how we go this year.”
Slipper is desperate to make amends for the 2013 series loss to the Lions, who hammered the Wallabies 41-16 in the third and deciding Test in Sydney to win 2-1.
“We put ourselves in a position there to win both here in Brisbane, we obviously won in Melbourne, but we let ourselves down massively in Sydney in that deciding game,” he said.
“Probably what makes it really tough is how we performed in that last game – 12 years is a long time to wait.”
Originally published as James Slipper opens up on what continues to motivate him to keep playing for Wallabies as he prepares for British & Irish Lions
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