Thirty-year-old's best game yet to come
Brumbies coach Dan McKellar is determined to re-sign James Slipper and the veteran Wallabies prop has declared his best rugby is ahead of him.
Slipper joined the Brumbies from the Queensland Reds last Super Rugby season in a move that reignited his international career.
The 30-year-old has flourished in Canberra on a rotation system with his Wallabies front row partner Scott Sio and his form earned a third World Cup berth last year.
McKellar said Slipper played a crucial role in the Brumbies clinching the Australian conference last season and why they currently sit top of their group.
“The amount of work he’s getting through from one game to the next is huge but it’s also the quality of work that he’s producing,” McKellar told AAP.
“He’s in a great patch of form and you’ve got to cash in when that’s the case. He came back to pre-season with a great attitude.
“He walked in the office on day one and said ‘how am I going to get better’. And that’s a great question get asked from a bloke of his experience.”
Slipper is off-contract at the end of the season and McKellar was confident of keeping him in the capital.
“We’ve started discussions with Slips which have been positive so far,” McKellar said.
“He’s an outstanding footballer, whilst he’s not in our leadership group he’s a leader amongst our group and he knows that, he’s become a lot more vocal in his second year here.”
Slipper hasn’t ruled out a fourth World Cup and qualifies for the ‘Giteau Law’ which would allow him to play overseas and still represent the Wallabies.
The reliable loosehead put his form down to his love of Canberra and the club.
“Everyone is really enjoying themselves and when you enjoy yourself you play good footy,” Slipper said.
“It’s about doing and work hard and enjoying the preparation and turning up on Mondays and the performances come off the back of that.
“I’m feeling young. I’ve still got a couple of years in me. I think some of my best rugby is still ahead of me so that’s what I’ve been concentrating on.
“I still don’t know what the future holds for me but we’ll see what happens, at the moment I’m really enjoying the rotation but we push each other as well, it’s pretty hard work, and we get better performances out of each other because of it.”
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