James Slipper says Wallabies have moved on from ugly Eddie Jones era

One of the key men left to re-establish the Wallabies as a rugby power says there’s one element the national team needs to beat Wales again.

James Slipperwill lead the Wallabies against Wales. Picture: William West / AFP

Amid the myriad decisions made by former Wallabies coach Eddie Jones last year that became evidence of dysfunction at the top was the appointment of James Slipper and Michael Hooper as co-captains before Jones changed his mind when he got to the World Cup.

It’s a period that Slipper, who has been given the captaincy, albeit reluctantly and only after an injury to Liam Wright, for Saturday’s second clash with Wales in Melbourne, is loath to talk about, particularly Jones’s barb about a lack of “hardness” when the Australians were smashed by this week’s opponents in France.

Slipper, the most capped played in the team by some margin, is one of the few survivors of that disastrous World Cup campaign that ended with Jones walking out to rejoin Japan, leaving the 35-year-old prop as one of the men most crucial in helping pick up the pieces.

To do that, Slipper wants to talk about the here and now, the new team under new coach Joe Schmidt, and all the positives that came from last week’s opening win in Sydney, a victorious start for the next iteration of the national side.

Slipper has held his tongue when it comes to 2023, when the Wallabies won just two of nine Tests with Jones in charge, and once again did his best to be “diplomatic” when pressed on Jones’s sledge and whether hardness was an issue.

“To be honest, last year, it is what it is really,” Slipper, the most capped prop in Australian rugby history, said on Friday.

Australian captain James Slipper shares a light moment with Nic White at AAMI Park on Friday. Picture: William West / AFP

“Everyone in the circle knows what happened. Most of the fans, rugby fans, sporting fans knew what happened, so I’m not going to spell it out again.

“But for us as a group, we’re moving forward, we want to do our talking on the field, so that’s what we were doing. Was that diplomatic enough for you?

“Last week was a good step forward for us. I guess rugby teams are built off culture and it’s a direct representation of how you’re going off the field is how you’re going on the field.

“So for us, you know, we’re just going to keep driving that.

“I’m really struggling to talk about last year when we got a really good game this weekend coming, so that’s probably my focus right now.”

Eddie Jones and Slipper in France last year. Picture: Sebastien Bozon / AFP

In handing Slipper the role, Schmidt said the veteran “isn’t massively keen on” but was the obvious choice to replace Wright because “he just leads himself really well”.

There are 13 players in the 23-man team that will face Wales who have less than 20 Tests experience, including five in the starting 15 who have only 17 Tests between them, so Slipper’s presence is crucial to a team growing in confidence.

He said he was aware consistency was the hallmark of great teams and so that had to be the Wallabies’ aim.

“Confidence is probably the most accurate word to use, coming off a pretty lean year last year and new group of players, new staff,” he said.

“You know, we want to be winning games and the good teams are consistent throughout their performances and that’s what we’re aiming to do, so we want to back up last week with another good performance.”

Originally published as James Slipper says Wallabies have moved on from ugly Eddie Jones era