Wallabies prop James Slipper says his first year as the Queensland Reds’ Player Director on the RUPA Board has been enjoyable, and allowed him to develop new skills.
Stepping up as the Reds’ representative on the board following James Horwill’s move to the UK, Slipper’s education has allowed him to look at the game from a different perspective.
“It has definitely been a step up in terms of responsibility,” he told RUPA from Wallaby Camp. “When you become a Director on the RUPA Board, you have a responsibility to stay across all of the issues affecting Rugby and that’s something at the start of my career that I never would have guessed I would be involved with.
“The position requires me to invest my time to ensure that I can keep the Reds players educated on the current state of Australian Rugby, reading over all the board papers and attending meetings, but I have definitely enjoyed keeping the boys up to date with what’s happening at RUPA level.
“Over the last year I have learnt a lot more about our game, and about things which I never really took into account, which has given me another perspective on Rugby.”
One of the key issues highlighted by today’s professional players on RUPA’s team visits around the country is the amount of leave and rest that they receive, and how ‘burnout’ can affect their mental wellbeing and their ability to train and play at their best.
Slipper told RUPA that he personally performs at his best on the field when he is mentally relaxed, and credits his use of leave periods to completely get away from Rugby as the best way to achieve that state of mind.
Slipper has been in camp with the Wallabies in Sydney for the past two weeks as The Rugby Championship draws ever nearer, that camp beginning following just one week’s break at the conclusion of the Super Rugby season.
“Yeah, after the last game it was just the one week across the board at all the Super Rugby teams,” Slipper explains. “I did absolutely nothing with my week off; I spent most of it at the beach down on the Gold Coast, jumped in the gym a couple of times and got around family and friends.
“After that, as a Reds player, it was straight down to Sydney to start training hard in Wallaby camp. We do get the weekends off and we’re allowed to fly back home, but we know it’s a hard Test season coming up with another twelve games to come this year, so we can’t have too much of a rest.”
Slipper’s Reds teammates who didn’t get invited to Wallaby camp got one extra week off before returning to Ballymore for training this week ahead of the Buildcorp National Rugby Championship (NRC), with another three-month slog ahead following a Super Rugby season which started in February. It follows on from a massive year of Rugby last year, and Slipper admits it’s a lot of work.
“With last year being a Rugby World Cup year, it was definitely the most intense season I have ever been a part of,” he said.
“We went from Super Rugby into The Rugby Championship, and then to Chicago and the USA before the Rugby World Cup, and it meant that lots of the boys were getting up around 30 games for the year.
“When we returned to Australia after the Rugby World Cup we had most of November and December off, but I couldn’t get up to too much on my holidays as unfortunately I had a couple of surgeries so my arm was in a sling and I had to go easy on my knee. There’s not much rest, but the boys love playing for their country and just want to enjoy the time that you do get in the jersey.”
There’s a lot of debate currently taking place around the world regarding a global Rugby calendar, and while Slipper admits it would be beneficial he understands that it may prove difficult to organise.
“Yes, it would be ideal if we could have a global Rugby calendar, and I think that it would make our competitions stronger and put more emphasis on the Test matches outside of The Rugby Championship,” he said. “In the June internationals, you have the northern hemisphere teams coming off their Six Nations while we’ve come together a week beforehand; it makes it difficult.
“In saying that, I really do understand that there are a lot of hurdles to jump to put that kind of calendar in place and at the end of the day you can’t please everyone, but it will be interesting to see what can happen.”
Slipper said time together in Wallaby camp was crucial to allow the team to connect.
“Spending time together over the last two weeks has been great,” he said. “With players coming from all five of the different Super Rugby teams and now overseas, it’s really important to pick back up on the bonds you’ve created over the years.
“Fortunately, that happens quite seamlessly, especially due to the amount of work you put in together at training! We’ve been worked very hard physically to get our bodies back up and our skills ready to go, because The Rugby Championship sees us against three of the world’s top teams and we need to be on our game.”
RUPA have recently appointed Player Delegates at all of the Super Rugby Clubs and among the Rugby Sevens squads, and Slipper says he is benefitting from having Reds’ Delegates Sam Talakai and Kane Douglas more involved behind the scenes.
“With all of the information that I am gathering from the top, transferring it throughout the squad via Kane and Sammy makes it a lot easier and means that the players know more about what’s happening behind the scenes; I think it’s been a great initiative to get the Delegates on board, and their role is crucial.”
The 77-cap Wallaby enjoys a good friendship with former Reds lock Adam Wallace-Harrison, who served as RUPA President and is now a Co-Opted Director on the RUPA Board.
“I haven’t really gone out of my way to grab ‘Wal’ and chat to him about RUPA things, but every time I see him at a RUPA meeting or around the traps, we talk about a few of the ongoing issues. I’m quite good mates with all the players on the Board which has made it quite an easy transition, and we’re all working towards a common goal, which is to push Rugby forward in Australia.
“Mostly mate, Wal just wants to reminisce about the old times, which he really enjoys,” he laughs.
Turning his focus back to Brisbane, and after a tough season in Queensland Slipper already has one eye on the 2017 Super Rugby season with the Reds following the appointment of new Head Coach Nick Stiles, a fellow Wallaby front rower.
“It’s great to have ‘Stilesy’ appointed,” Slipper said. “The best thing for us as a Club is that we can move on, and we now have some direction with our coaching staff. We want to get excited about 2017 and put on the good season that our fans definitely deserve.”
Although he’s still just 27 and a long way from retirement, Slipper said it is pleasing for the current professional players in Australia to see that there is a genuine coaching pathway in this country if they choose to head down that road when they finish playing Rugby.
“I think it’s very important that there’s a pathway for coaches and we don’t have to necessarily look overseas,” he said. “Stilesy has been involved at Super Rugby level for six years with the Western Force and then the Reds, and he has done a great job here; we’ve really improved our set piece.
“He was given an opportunity with Brisbane City in the NRC and did a great job there in going back to back, and from all reports the players loved him and he did a great job in developing them. In terms of pathways for coaches I think it’s great that the NRC is helping us develop not just players but also the next crop of Australian coaches, and it will be exciting watching Stilesy continue to improve.
“It’s great for players to see a coaching pathway exists and it’s great seeing ex-players staying in the game after they retire and passing on their skills to the younger players; it shows all players that giving coaching a go is a great opportunity for them.”
But Slipper’s focus for the time being is firmly on the Wallabies, and as he continues to spend such a large amount of time away from home each year there’s at least one constant presence throughout.
“Every single year I room with Rob Simmons; we’ve had that most of our careers, so it’s a bit of the same old for us, and as a bonus we’ve also got young Nick Frisby as a new addition in our room this week.
“Simmo and I went to school together, we are good mates away from Rugby and we know each other’s ins and outs so we’re looking forward to the next little while, but at the end of the year it will have been so long that the first thing we always want to do is get away from each afterwards!”
