Rugby: Rugby-Slipper selected for Australian record 178th Super Rugby match

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Wallabies prop James Slipper is set to surpass Stephen Moore as the most-capped Australian Super Rugby player this weekend after being named in the starting ACT Brumbies side to face the New South Wales Waratahs.

Saturday’s clash in Canberra will be the 34-year-old loosehead’s 178th match in the competition since he made his debut for the Queensland Reds off the bench against the Waratahs in 2010.

Slipper was originally slated to set the record against the Reds in Brisbane last weekend until it was discovered that an administrative error had deprived former Wallabies captain Moore of one appearance.

“It is special,” Slipper told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

“You’re right, a couple of false starts but the boys are pretty happy about it because they get to give me another tough week. So yeah, I’m excited. Just looking forward to getting a good result and capping it off.”

Slipper won the first of his 134 Wallabies caps in 2010 and the Super Rugby title with the Reds the following year, but his career hit the buffers when he was banned in 2018 after testing positive for cocaine.

He revived it with a move to Brumbies in 2019 and has been a fixture for the Canberra-based team and Australia since, his ability to play on both sides of the front row proving invaluable when Taniela Tupou was injured at last year’s World Cup.

Slipper said his sometime test partner Moore, who also played his whole Super Rugby career with the Reds and Brumbies, had been in touch to congratulate him.

“He actually sent me a message on the weekend,” Slipper added.

“Just wishing me all the best. He’s a respected player so you get a text from him, someone I’ve played a lot of rugby with, it’s always nice.

“It’s a nice feeling to be up there in the company of players like him.”

After Saturday, Slipper will have only New Zealanders Wyatt Crockett (202), Aaron Smith (185), Liam Messam (182) and Sam Whitelock (181) above him in the list of most-capped Super Rugby players.

With only a year left on his contract after this season, it is unlikely that Slipper will overhaul fellow prop Crockett but the Queenslander was just happy to have got as far as he has.

“I don’t see any players playing to try and reach milestones like this,” he said.

“I think it just comes with a bit of luck. I’ve had a lucky career. I’ve worked hard but I’ve been on the bad side of injuries and that sort of stuff.

“So I’m humbled that I’ve made it.”

(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)