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Why James Slipper deserves Wallabies recall after cocaine ban

Brumbies prop James Slipper. (Photo by Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images)

Wallabies props Allan Alaalatoa and Scott Sio say reformed loosehead James Slipper has earned the right to play for Australia again.

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Slipper has reinvigorated his career at the Brumbies this Super Rugby season after leaving the Queensland Reds last year following two positive cocaine tests.

The 30-year-old has enjoyed a stellar campaign in Canberra, working in tandem with Sio and faces his former club on Saturday in the final round before finals.

Slipper hasn’t played for the Wallabies since 2017, but on current form the 86-Test prop is a near certainty to feature at his third World Cup in September.

Sio is fighting Slipper for the Wallabies No.1 jersey but said his teammate deserves to be in the World Cup squad, having served his time for past indiscretions.

“He hadn’t played a lot of rugby the last two years before coming here with the injury in 2017 and a bit of adversity last year,” Sio said.

“Unfortunately for Slips it’s something that’s always going to hang around but he’s moved on with his life and he’s put his best foot forward here in Canberra.

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“It was great for him to come here and challenge himself in a new environment, after all he went through it could have been easy for him to stay up there in Queensland and just see things out. But he chose to take the tough road and it’s paid off for him this year.

“If you’re playing the best and you’re available you should be up for selection.”

Brumbies tighthead Alaalatoa echoed the sentiment and said the front-row rotation between Slipper and Sio helped the club win back the Australian conference this season.

“It’s been huge for us, the rotation, they’ve never had that at the Brumbies, Scotty has always been that No.1 loosehead who has played 70 minutes,” Alaalatoa said.

“Slips coming to Canberra has helped him a lot and he’s helped me as a player and the other young props.

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“We see the type of footy he’s playing which is probably the best footy I’ve ever seen him play.”

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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