They might have suffered a record trans-Tasman defeat last Saturday, but on the eve of his 100th Test James Slipper remains confident that the Wallabies are on the cusp of achieving some special things under Dave Rennie.
Ahead of this year’s Bledisloe Cup Slipper, who made his debut against England in 2010, spoke excitedly about the future of Australian rugby.
Having witnessed first-hand the development of rookie playmaker Noah Lolesio in 2020 and the likes of proven hardmen Scott Sio and Allan Alaalatoa, Slipper said he was confident in the direction that the Wallabies were headed.
Those signs looked all the rosier after their remarkable 16-16 draw in Wellington in Bledisloe I, but after back to back losses, including their 43-5 drubbing in Sydney, the oxygen in the air has been sucked out.
Even so, the 99-Test Wallaby, who has been at three World Cups, still believes that they’re headed in the right direction.
“Yeah, I’m extremely confident with the players and the staff and the direction that we’re going,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
“We’ve put in a lot of good work over the last five-six weeks, but we just let ourselves down on the weekend and it feels like we’ve undone a lot of really good work which hurts.
“But direction-wise, I definitely think we’re heading in the right direction. We’ve got to be clinical and we’ve got to make sure we play our best games when it’s needed, just being more consistent, but we’re five weeks into a new way of playing but I’m definitely confident that this group in the future will be a very successful one.”
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To begin with though, Slipper said it was important that the team not gloss over the hiding they faced.
“I just think owning the result,” Slipper said.
“We clearly weren’t good enough on the weekend and then as a group we’ve just got to be better, we’ve been in this situation plenty of times in the last how many years, we’ve just got to get better.
“Dave’s touched on it, it’s the start of a new era, he’s here for four (years), so we’ve crammed a lot into the five weeks that we’ve been together but at the end of the day we’ve just got to get better as a team and win those games.”
While the Bledisloe Cup might be in New Zealand’s hands for an 18th straight year, try telling the Wallabies that Saturday’s fourth and final trans-Tasman match of the season is a dead-rubber.
“No, no it’s not a dead-rubber,” Slipper said, who is in-line to become the 13th Australian to reach the 100 Test milestone on Saturday.
“We obviously respect the jersey that we play in, we’re playing for our country and you’ve got to prepare like it’s last your Test, and this week is no different for me and Simmo and especially the young fellas.
“This group’s worked really hard on the training field, we’re just hungry for results, and we’ve just got to make sure that we go out there and play our game that we’ve been training to do.
“In terms of a dead-rubber, there’s no such thing as a dead-rubber in Test match rugby – win or loss – it’s always on the record books and we’ll be going out there to win this weekend.”
Adding to the importance of the Bledisloe fixture, it is also the second game of this year’s Tri Nations.
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