Evergreen Slipper packs down for 200th Super Rugby match

MELBOURNE, Feb 20 - More than 16 years after first packing down for Ewen McKenzie's Queensland Reds, prop James Slipper will run out with the ACT Brumbies for his 200th Super Rugby match on Sunday, ticking off another milestone in a career of incredible longevity.

The 36-year-old bowed out of his test career with a Wallabies record 151st cap at the end of last year's Rugby Championship, with another Bledisloe Cup loss to the All Blacks souring his Perth swansong with family and friends.

He has kept chugging along in Super Rugby Pacific, though, and will hope for a better result against some of New Zealand's finest when the Brumbies meet the Canterbury Crusaders at Rugby League Park.

Former All Black Wyatt Crockett's record of 202 Super Rugby caps -- all with the Crusaders -- is within tantalising reach, but Slipper has spent a career deflecting attention from his milestone matches and was not about to wax lyrical before boarding a plane to New Zealand on Sunday.

"Look, it's always nice to hit milestones, but I'll always put the team first," he told reporters.

"Like, there's nothing better than sitting in a winning change room and having a beer after a game.

"So that's something that we'll strive for this weekend, regardless of my 200th and hopefully, we can get a good win."

Slipper spoke in front of the flight departures board at Canberra airport which had a message of congratulations for his 200th, a mark of reverence for the Gold Coast native who has helped keep the Brumbies Australia's most competitive Super Rugby team.

There have been plenty of other tributes, including from coach Stephen Larkham and his teammates, who he said, jokingly, had been giving him a hard time at training during the week.

Still earning his place as the team's starting loosehead, Slipper is much more than a mentor to the young props on the Brumbies roster.

"Every time he speaks, whether it's in a huddle or in a team meeting space, everyone listens and takes the advice on board and then he backs that up with consistent performance," Larkham said on Thursday.

"(He's) still playing as good as he's ever played in his career and still loving his rugby, it's a pleasure to coach him and the boys love being around him."

Slipper has never had the pleasure of hoisting a Bledisloe Cup or a Super Rugby trophy, having missed the Reds' 2011 triumph over the Crusaders at Lang Park.

However, beating the Crusaders on Sunday would be sweet, given it would end the Brumbies' 26-year losing streak in away games to the defending champions.

Rob Penney's Crusaders are likely to bounce back hard after being stunned by the Otago Highlanders in Dunedin in the season-opener last week.

The odds are stacked against the Brumbies after coming off a long road trip to Perth where they beat Western Force.

But the Canberra side managed a hoodoo-busting win at Eden Park last year when they upset the Auckland Blues for the first time in New Zealand in 12 years.

"It's probably something we want to change pretty quickly," Slipper said of the Brumbies' record in Christchurch.

"And not just for the Brumbies. For Australian rugby, the more we are competitive and winning games over 'the ditch', the better it will be for us." REUTERS