Skelton boosts Wallabies for All Blacks re-match after Bledisloe absence
KING JAMES: Wallaby veteran James Slipper before his 150th game against New Zealand at Eden Park in Auckland. Pic: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images.
WILL Skelton's return to the Australia camp has come a week too late for Wallabies fans but the France-based lock hopes to convert Bledisloe pain into Rugby Championship joy against New Zealand in Perth on Saturday.
Skelton missed the 33-24 defeat by the All Blacks at Eden Park last Saturday, having committed to a Top 14 match between La Rochelle and Toulon that ended up being cancelled when the stadium was flooded by heavy rain.
With Australia's Eden Park setback handing the Bledisloe Cup to New Zealand for another year, Wallabies fans wondered what might have been had Skelton, one of their most important players, been available.
The 33-year-old lock said he and Wallabies' team management had looked at all options before deciding against a late dash to Auckland.
"I love playing for Australia and, again, I do love playing for La Rochelle as well. We try and make it work when it can," he said. "We want to make everyone in Australia proud of what we do and how we play footy so the Bledisloe might be gone, but we’re definitely putting everything we can into winning this Rugby Championship."
Australia are third in the Rugby Championship table, four points behind leaders South Africa. Beating second-placed New Zealand on Saturday will not be enough to secure the silverware if the defending champion Springboks beat Argentina at Twickenham.
Australia's progress under coach Joe Schmidt this season has impressed all their Rugby Championship rivals but not produced the silverware they crave.
They lost the British & Irish Lions series 2-1, the Mandela Challenge Plate to South Africa and split the Argentina series 1-1.
They have been competitive in every test but fallen short after a series of slow starts, and hooker Billy Pollard said the near-misses were frustrating even if the overall trend was positive.
"I think everyone in this team just wants to win. That's the whole reason we're here," he said.
Meanwhile Australia's most-capped test player James Slipper will retire from international rugby following the final Rugby Championship clash against New Zealand on Saturday, bringing the curtain down on a record-breaking 16-year career.
The 36-year-old prop earned his 150th cap last week in the 33-24 defeat by the All Blacks in Auckland, becoming only the third player to reach the milestone after Wales' Alun Wyn Jones (171) and New Zealand's Sam Whitelock (153).
Slipper will end his Wallabies career where it began – in Perth – having made his debut off the bench as a 21-year-old against England in 2010.
"Representing the Wallabies has been the single proudest achievement of my rugby career and a privilege I have never taken for granted," he said in a Rugby Australia statement on Wednesday.
"As a young kid on the Gold Coast playing backyard footy with my brothers, it was a dream to pull on the gold jersey, and to be able to say I've lived my dream for what's coming on 16 years is more than I could ever have asked for.
"It feels like the right time for me to step away from test rugby. There’s a number of good young props coming through who will need time in the saddle leading into what's going to be an unbelievable experience of a home Rugby World Cup in 2027."
Meanwhile, South Africa have their feet firmly on the ground ahead of a Rugby Championship "final" against Argentina in London on Saturday as they head into the tussle as heavy favourites having thumped their opponents 67-30 in Durban last weekend.
Coach Rassie Erasmus says there will be no complacency from his players despite scoring 110 points in their last two matches, including inflicting a heaviest ever test defeat on New Zealand with a 43-10 win in Wellington.
The results have sparked gushing praise from the media and fans, but Erasmus knows all too well that fortunes can fluctuate wildly.
"It's not the players who are talking themselves up and making a fuss about themselves," Erasmus told reporters in London after naming his team on Tuesday.
"It's (fans), we love the support and we appreciate the media and what they do, but the reality is we are playing against an Argentina team who will be hurting.
"And we know when we have been hurting, we pitch up the next week."
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