Slipper reaches another milestone but would prefer a Brumbies win
SYDNEY, March 4 (Reuters) - James Slipper will become the second most-capped player in Super Rugby this weekend but the evergreen prop would rather be celebrating a first win for the ACT Brumbies at Eden Park since 2013 than another milestone come Friday night.
The 35-year-old , already the most-capped Wallaby, will surpass Aaron Smith with 186 caps and stand only behind Wyatt Crockett (202) when he takes to the field against the Auckland Blues, the reigning Super Rugby Pacific champions.
"It is special, but it's hard to focus too much on it," Slipper told reporters from New Zealand on Tuesday.
"I'm at that stage of my career, I really want to do well for the Brumbies and get a bit of success here at the club.
"That's probably more my focus than any individual accolade or milestone. I'm treating it like any other game, and I think I'll probably reflect on all that sort of stuff when I finish."
The Brumbies made a fine start to the season with a win over the Fijian Drua in Suva but lost their next two games to Western Force and the Waikato Chiefs, shipping 12 tries and 94 points in the process.
While the Brumbies also bagged 12 tries over the two games and the numbers reflect high score games throughout Super Rugby this year, Slipper conceded tightening up against a Blues team studded with All Blacks will be tough.
"Defence has probably been letting us down, if I'm honest," he said.
"Like in any sport, in any competition, the team that defends the best tends to be at the pointy end of the season.
"We've discussed areas of our game that we want to improve, and defence is one of those. It's going to be a big challenge for us defensively coming up against this Blues team."
The Blues have their own problems and lost their first two matches of the season before winning a thriller against the Wellington Hurricanes last weekend.
It proved a costly victory, however, with openside flanker Dalton Papali'i suffering an injury that could rule him out of Friday's game and number eight Hoskins Sotutu being suspended for three weeks after being sent off.
"They're the defending champs," said Slipper. "They got a good win on the weekend, so they're going to be full of confidence, and they got strike power players all across their team, so it's setting up for a big one."
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