Wallabies captain James Slipper had just finished stressing the importance of a disciplined performance against the All Blacks, at his captain’s call media conference on Wednesday, when he was hit by a curly one.
Asked what his team needed to do to start the two-game Bledisloe Cup series with a win, and go to New Zealand with hopes of ending the 20-year drought, Slipper replied: “The start of the game and then just the basics.
“So your set piece, kicking game, and then just working on your discipline. We’re probably the worst team in terms of discipline at the moment. We seem to get penalised quite a fair bit, which is something we’ve spoken about each week, but we haven’t had a response from the players.
“Hopefully this week we just nail our basics, we play fundamental rugby, play at the right end of the field and we get our set piece going. We’re under no illusions. We’re going to have to be at our best to win. That’s our focus.”
It was the follow-up question that stopped Slipper in his tracks, as it was pointed out he was the most penalised player in TRC this season. And it’s not even close – with 11 penalties conceded he has given away four more than the next worst offender.
“It’s not ideal, is it?” Slipper acknowledged. “We spoke about it a fair bit and we’ve had honest reviews over that and being a captain I’ve got to lead by example there and pull my head in.”
Slipper was 13 when the Wallabies last won a series and like most Wallabies fans, can’t explain why it hasn’t happened since 2002.
“It’s a hard question,” said Slipper. “You can look at it both angles, we probably haven’t been up to standard and the All Blacks have been above standard.
“Some of the teams I’ve played against, in New Zealand, they’ve been pretty strong. You look back at that 2015 team, it’s world-class. They’re always tough games and in my career, we’ve managed to win a few dead rubbers, the third game.
“So for us, two games this year, we’ve got to make sure that every game counts and that we start well.”
Slipper was 13 when the Australians last won the Cup and that era fuelled his desire to become a rugby international.
“They were some of my fondest memories and probably a main reason why I wanted to be a Wallaby,” Slipper said. “I grew up watching the late 90s, early 2000s, being a successful era for us as a country in rugby. We want to inspire rugby players around the country and we’ve got a job to do, we know that.”
The players received a visit on Sunday from some ‘Classic Wallabies’ – Chris Latham, Elton Flatley and Daniel Herbert – who aimed to inspire the current crop.
“We’ve got a couple of boys born the year we last won it. It’s a long time,” Slipper said. “It works in our favour as well. These young players are coming in and haven’t gone through the last 15 or 20 years playing the All Blacks. They have had some great teams over the last decade. This team is just as strong I reckon.
“It was really good to have some classic Wallabies join the group. They came in for a free feed and they really enjoyed themselves.
“Just sitting down there and openly talking with them is something all the current players really enjoyed. It was really casual. Nothing formal. It was just about just that connection and getting them in.
“Over the last three years, with COVID it’s been really hard to bring people into the inner sanctum. So, to have that little bit of connection there with the old firm would be good.”
New Zealand have struggled with consistency this season and after a series defeat to Ireland and an opening loss to Argentina, there is a sense that this presents the best chance in years for Australia to break through.
“I’ve heard that commentary a fair bit but history tells us they’re a pretty hard team to beat,” said Slipper.
“They’ve had the wood on us for 20 years so us as a playing group, we understand what’s coming and it’s going to be a hard task to win the Bledisloe and it starts tomorrow here.”
James Slipper (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
He has been surprised by the All Blacks’ inconsistency, due to them being “a good team, a big rugby nation and there’s a lot of pressure on their outcome.”
“In terms of World Rugby, there’s been a lot of closing of the gap between southern and northern hemispheres. And I’d probably say the top six to eight teams are pretty close.
“On any day, anyone could probably win the game. And I think that’s exciting for rugby. The closer these games are, the better they are, going into the World Cup next year that’s the interesting thing and the really exciting thing. “
Australia has had a significant refresh ahead of this match, with eight starting team changes and the return of Bernard Foley at No.10. Slipper took his chance to have some fun at Foley’s expense.
“It’s good having little piggy around and his little fat fingers,” Slipper joked. “Another experienced player for us. We’ve gone through quite a few players. It’s that next man in attitude and Bernard has come in well. He has been a big voice in our group this week and I’m excited to see him don the jersey.”
The Roar Rugby experts Harry Jones and Brett McKay are joined by Kiwi commentator ‘Sumo’ Stevenson to preview Thursday’s big game
He said changes had “been our story of the season.
“The second South African game was the first time we’ve strung the same 15 together. And we’ve been forced into some more changes this week. We’re not strangers to it and we’re still going to run a game plan that we think will challenge the All Blacks.
“Regardless of who plays in those positions, we like to back ourselves that whoever’s in that jersey can do that role at that time. The biggest thing having Nardie back is just that experience and composure at the big moments.”
Slipper continues to stand in for Michael Hooper, with no recent updates on the long term future of Australia’s regular captain. It would represent a massive career moment if he can become the first Australian captain since George Gregan to hoist the Cup this month.
Two years ago, when he played his 100th Test, Slipper was presented with a bottle of wine on the field afterward by All Blacks captain Sam Cane.
“It’s still unopened,” Slipper said on Wednesday. “That was a good occasion that night, we managed to get the win there so that was the more important thing.
“I’ll crack it one day mate.”
Every Wallaby fan can picture the perfect occasion.
Busted Fullback
Roar Rookie
Now there are two jealous, me and Mrs Busted. :crying: Enjoyed the chat. Enjoy the game tonight.
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
Yes, my thought as well as to why the Wallabies were the best. The "run from everywhere" Australian Style is nonsense. That's Randwick style rugby, Bob Dwyer tempered Ranwick rugby and brought the running kills like flat passing. Cheika, another Randwick coach went for the 'never kick, run from anywhere' it's the "Australian Way" . That was never Australian rugby. It was all about field position, when they did run it, it was scintillating because the time was right and the execution perfect. Gareth Edwards is a hero of mine, and was fortunate enough to be seated alongside him for a dinner. He's as good a bloke as he was masterful rugby player. For me, the best rugby player I ever saw. That was a night to remember!
Hooter
Roar Rookie
Yes, he did have a brain tumour. Poor form of me to bring it up. My ire at Dingo Deans is that he persisted with some self entitled twerps and branded it "X-Factor". Annoyingly the succesful Crusaders teams he coached were chock full of really good players who functioned as a team which he did not seem to value as much in the Wallabies.
Filstrup
Roar Rookie
Ill discipline/bad refereeing, two sides of the coin, which is which? Any statistics on trigger happy officials that seem to be mesmerised by the high visibility jersey wallabies wear, and repeatedly blowing against them? The second England test in Brisbane ambushed by WR making sure poms got away with it with a farcical officiating and TMO show. And then, AR booking the tests on AFL country grounds. Where is the so called fan base, there is none, just a bunch of ma and pa kettle wearing silly yellow hats. In Brisbane the poms singing sweet lord sweet chariot and in Adelaide the same, saffas booing White. Ridiculous situation the game of rugby in Australia is , three decades behind pay tv wall, favoritism and cronyism, NSW vs QLD silly antagonism, players leaving for o/ anyway with or without dumb Giteau Law. A secret men's business, oh yes we all are very opinionated boffins decrypting the complex laws -laws, not rules, watch out, boy- of this game which is btw controlled by a WR monster organisation, similar traits to FIFA, UEFA, based in the NH manned by Irish, Scottish, Welsh and English power brokers that find special pleasure inflicting pain on the minnows, which btw happens to be, guess who?
Hoy
Roar Guru
Harder… at least at a rwc someone else can beat the ABs for us…
Hoy
Roar Guru
Penalties as a prop are not about “pulling one’s head in” really.
Bobby
Roar Rookie
No you don't!
Derek Murray
Roar Rookie
The point is who might be better. Would Sio have conceded less? Would Bell? 11 might be a great result
Rusty
Roar Guru
Well played sir - top film
Wallabies_Larkham
Roar Rookie
Hooter Deans did actually pretty well taking us to number 2 on the rankings and this was during a very strong AB team period if I recall..beating the boklings 5 games in a row..he had more success against boklings..
James584
Roar Rookie
Malherbe was well in top of Slipper. He wasn’t ‘boring in’. He was out muscling Slipper, then capitalising on the advantage by splitting the Aussie front row.
James584
Roar Rookie
You know why.
savant
Roar Rookie
No the wallabies front row is not subject to unfair scrutiny. And JS is no saint. But if you look at the scrums in this tournament so far when the shenanigans have been penalized out our front row has been bloody good. But we are no saints. Tupou angles in a lot. In fact all tight heads do. It’s illegal but they all do it because if you separate loose head from hooker you depower that side of the scrum. And the scrum is a contest to push over the ball. The scrum has become a whole game on its own in the last 20 years. When I played prop in the 70 s and 80s it was a far simpler world. The main objective then was to get underneath your opponent so they couldn’t push you off the ball. Wheeling was a thing but usually used by packs that couldn’t match the power of the opposition so it was fraught with danger. These days there is a lot more going on. No ref I know has ever played prop so their real understanding is limited. And to be fair to them, the picture at ground level is very hard to decipher. It’s very common for refs to penalize a side because of the picture they’re seeing rather than the cause. For example penalize the prop who goes down first, when his opponent may have backed off the weight at engagement or pulled him down. But the point I’m making about this article is that Slipper is no different to any other prop in the tournament. They’ve all been penalized. Sometimes legitimately sometimes not. This is not a discipline problem. It’s the dumb penalties that are.
Homer Gain
Guest
I've been re-watching games form the 2003 and 2007 World Cups recently. The difference in scrum process is striking; scrums are no less messy, but setting process is quicker and refs are much slower to penalise front rows going down unless it is very obvious one side is to blame. It is also noticeable that refs seemed less inclined to penalise a scrum in retreat, again providing the retreating team is not obviously standing up, or going down under pressure (there is lots of defensive wheeling going on that did not seem to be penalised in the way it would be now). Whether statistics (fewer scrum penalties, less scrum time) back up this impression, or whether the game is better for the different approaches then and now remains to be seen.
No Arms
Roar Rookie
He’s signaling he wouldn’t mind binding on too
Objective Observer
Roar Rookie
RWC 2019 Aus V Fiji “low five” Fijian try scorer - should NEVER Ref Aus ever again!
Objective Observer
Roar Rookie
I was a hooker in 2 scrums at about age 15 (back when Rugby balls were made of leather) I didn’t really get it then and still don’t get it now. So I have no idea about the substance of your claims. I do think that the quality of refereeing is poor but when you are not accountable (and come from NZ) you don’t need to be good.
In brief
Guest
I question if penalties always come from indiscipline. More often than not it’s inconsistent refereeing. Just watching the English rugby and the refereeing in the Newcastle match literally decided the match. He rewards Dombrandt and then penalises the Newcastle player for the identical action- not supporting body weight when pilfering.
BBBT
Roar Rookie
I remember Greg Smith. He had a brain tumour so that explains a lot of it! I think this is worse than Deans and Cheika - yes that includes the McCalmann to 7 and McCabe at 12 stunts, or Tahu at all..
Homer Gain
Guest
Yes, but for reasons I've never understood, Angus does do a particularly fetching maul turnover signal (arm clutched across the chest, down on to one knee).