SYDNEY (AP) — Veteran prop James Slipper says he is planning a comeback to international rugby and has made himself available for the Wallabies' three Nations Championship matches in July, and possibly next year's World Cup in Australia.
The 37-year-old Slipper, who is Australia’s most-capped international player with 151 test appearances, played Super Rugby for the ACT Brumbies this season and has signed on for 2027. In March, he became the most-capped Super Rugby player after his 203rd match in the southern hemisphere tournament. He played 104 games for the Queensland Reds from 2010 to 2018 before joining the Canberra-based Brumbies.
“At this stage, yeah, just for the July series and then there’s a few things again working out behind the scenes, like I want to keep playing next year,” Slipper told media in Sydney on Wednesday.
Slipper indicated he felt he wasn’t quite done at test level when he announced his international retirement last October.
“But I probably surprised myself a little bit with how well I played this year,” Slipper said. “I know I probably wasn’t the best prop running around, but I still felt like I was moving well, so it was just a matter of the circumstances of the year led me to this position.”
Injuries to fellow loosehead props Tom Robertson, Tom Lambert and Blake Schoupp left Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt short of frontrowers, so the call went out to Slipper.
If he plays all three tests in July against Ireland, France and Italy, Slipper would surpass All Blacks lock Sam Whitelock as rugby’s second most-capped player with 153.
Retired lock Alun Wyn Jones holds the record at 170 tests — 158 for Wales and 12 for the British and Irish Lions.
If he makes it to next year's global tournament, it would be Slipper's fifth Rugby World Cup, highlighted by a run to the final in 2015.
“If there’s a reason for me to be available for the World Cup, then I’ll put my hand up,” he said. “I want to make myself probably playing the best rugby I can for the Brumbies . . . but a couple of things need to happen there.
“I need to earn that. I need to be playing well. I’ve got to be a better option than other looseheads in the country at the time. So at no stage am I sitting here thinking I’m going to be a certainty for the World Cup.”
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
FILE - Australia's James Slipper is cheered from the field following the Bledisloe Cup rugby test between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in Perth, Australia, on Oct 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gary Day, File)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lionel Messi registered his first World Cup hat trick while moving into a tie for first on the tournament's career scoring list Tuesday night, sending defending champion Argentina to a dominant 3-0 victory over Algeria in its group-stage opener.
Messi scored his first goal in the opening minutes on a nice feed from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, the second on a rebound early in the second half. Shortly after he got his third on a strike from the top of the penalty box, he subbed out to a standing ovation from a heavily pro-Argentina crowd.
The trio of goals gave him 16 for his career, putting him in a tie with Germany’s Miroslav Klose for the career record. They also allowed him to join Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to have scored in five World Cups.
“The first matches at the World Cup are always tough,” Messi said after playing in the tournament for a record-setting sixth time, “and we’re seeing that nobody’s giving anything away.”
Well, almost nothing. Algeria made some crucial mistakes on the first two of Messi's goals, which came 20 years to the day that he made his World Cup debut for Argentina in a match against Serbia and Montenegro — he scored in that one, too.
“We're not talking about any old footballer,” Algeria coach Vladimir Petkovic said. “Unfortunately we also afford him the opportunity with the first and second goal, and we actually made it easier for him. But Messi, with his clear thinking in crucial stages of the game, is able to do things that much more easily.”
Messi's brilliant hat trick helped Argentina get off to a much better start than its last World Cup. Four years ago, La Albiceleste were beaten by Saudi Arabia in their opening match in Qatar, only to rally from there to win their third world title.
“The first match is always tricky,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said. “We had stumbled in the last World Cup and we needed to have a good debut today.”
Messi, who turns 39 next week, nearly had two other goals against Algeria, never once looking like the mild hamstring injury that worried fans in the run-up to the tournament was a problem. One found the back of the net but was called back because he was ever-so-slightly offside, and another strike in the second half just cleared the crossbar.
He was a pest on defense, too, helping Argentina lock down the overmatched Les Fennecs.
“Argentina have a special player who can change a game on his own,” Algeria star Riyad Mahrez said.
Algeria's best chance came in the opening minutes, when Fares Chaibi's would-be goal was taken away by a VAR review that showed he was offside. Messi scored moments later, and the rest of the night belonged to him and Argentina.
“I like playing soccer. It’s been my passion since I was little,” Messi said. “When I’m in good shape, I give it my all.”
The game played at Arrowhead Stadium fulfilled the longtime dream of the late Lamar Hunt, who not only founded the NFL franchise that calls it home, but who was instrumental in the growth of soccer in the U.S. from the 1960s through the early 2000s.
Hunt played a big role in the U.S. hosting the 1994 World Cup. His sons, Clark and Dan, are doing likewise with this edition.
Among those in the crowd on a picture-perfect night in the Heartland were Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who traded in his usual red-and-yellow football uniform for a blue sweatsuit and white shirt, and his wife, Brittany.
Argentina will continue its pursuit of back-to-back titles in Arlington, Texas, when it plays Austria on Monday and Jordan on June 27. Algeria plays Jordan on Monday in Santa Clara, California, before facing Austria in its Group J finale on June 27 in Kansas City.
“The goal,” De Paul said, “is always to arrive on the first day and leave on the last.”
AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/fifa-world-cup
Argentina's Lionel Messi (10) celebrates after scoring their second goal during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Argentina and Algeria in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
General view during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Argentina and Algeria in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
Argentina's Lionel Messi reacts after scoring his third goal during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Argentina and Algeria in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Argentina's Lionel Messi reacts after scoring his third goal during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Argentina and Algeria in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Argentina's Lionel Messi (10) shoots and scores their third goal against Algeria's Riyad Mahrez (7) and Nabil Bentaleb (19) during the World Cup Group J soccer match between Argentina and Algeria in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday, June 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)
