Record Wallaby Slipper steps into scrum coaching role while playing days wind down

James Slipper, Australia’s most-capped rugby player, is already preparing for life after playing — serving as a specialist scrum coach for the Brumbies during the recent Super Rugby AUS series while still lacing up his boots as a player.

The 37-year-old prop, who holds the Australian record of 154 Test caps, stepped into a hybrid role when Brumbies forwards coach John Ulugia departed with the Wallabies squad. With more than 350 first-class appearances behind him — including a Super Rugby record 212 matches for the Brumbies — Slipper took charge of set-piece sessions alongside senior assistant coach Benny Mowen.

“I was like a hybrid coach because technically I was still training as well,” Slipper told the 8/9 Rugby Podcast. “So I’d coach the set piece, help out Benny with the lineout and the maul, and then obviously coach the scrum. But my boots were on the whole time and I was kind of half in, half out. But I really enjoyed it.”

The experience exposed the challenge that awaits him in a full-time coaching capacity. “I kind of know everything I want to coach,” he said. “The biggest thing for me was how do I make everyone else understand what I’m thinking? It’s always a challenge for a coach, saying it in a way that is understandable.”

Slipper has confirmed he will play for the Brumbies in 2027, further extending his Super Rugby appearance record, but a fifth Rugby World Cup remains far from certain. He was absent from the 33-man squad named by Wallabies coach Les Kiss for the November Nations Championship matches, having featured in only the first three Tests in July during a period when Australia faced a prop shortage.

Slipper said Kiss has been candid with the older generation of players — including Bernard Foley and Kurtley Beale — about the need to give younger players room to develop. “You can’t keep relying on older players to just keep playing, because it just doesn’t work like that,” Slipper said. “You need to expose these boys to top rugby.”

The scrum coaching stint offered a timely preview of what his post-playing career may look like, even if the precise moment of retirement remains undefined. For now, Slipper occupies an unusual middle ground — experienced enough to guide the next generation through a scrum, still fit enough to pack down alongside them.