It later emerged that Slipper had been battling depression while his mother had received a devastating terminal cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n
Watch the Wales vs Australia rugby clash on Stan Sport – the home of the Wallabies, All Blacks and Springboks spring tours.<\/em><\/strong> Start your seven day free trial here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n But Slipper made the most of a Super Rugby move from the Reds to the Brumbies and became a mainstay under new Wallabies coach Dave Rennie.<\/p>\n The 113 cap prop has led Australia once before, against the United States in 2015.<\/p>\n Hooper is out with a foot sprain sustained in Sunday's 32-15 loss to England.<\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Star's passionate defence after Wallabies loss<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Wallabies blown away by ruthless England<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Wallabies player ratings from latest England flop<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n "It's obviously devastating losing our skipper Hoops but the boys are very excited, there was a big roar when we heard Slips would be captain," Wallabies five-eighth James O'Connor told reporters.<\/p>\n "He's one of our leaders in the leadership group. He's been there and done that and everyone can rely on him. He's got a very steady presence.<\/p>\n "It's credit to the hard work that he's put in and how much he leaves it all out there.<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n "He's been on that journey and someone you get around. He's very authentic, he's very himself and a great bloke. We're excited for him to lead us out. He's a man of action, what he says, he'll do. He puts his body on the line and that's why we get around him.<\/p>\n "The job is normal for him. He's using the guys around him that would normally speak on detail and he comes in with a bit of emotion."<\/p>\n Slipper, who filled in at tighthead against England, is likely to start on his preferred loosehead side against Wales.<\/p>\n The Wallabies are hopeful that tightheads Taniela Tupou and Allan Alaalatoa will both be available after missing the England Test with concussions.<\/p>\n Wales have their own issues with concussion with prop WillGriff John and lock Will Rowlands unlikely to be available after taking head knocks in the win over Fiji last weekend.<\/p>\n Prop Tomas Francis (concussion), outside back Josh Adams (calf) and backrower Aaron Wainwright (shoulder) are also under selection clouds.<\/p>\n Talismanic captain Alun Wyn Jones is already out for the season with a shoulder injury.<\/p>\n "I think it's been brilliant for us in terms of finding out about people who can add to our depth," Wales forwards coach Jonathan Humphreys said.<\/p>\n "I don't see it as being frustrating at all. Those injuries that we've had have forced players to play who probably wouldn't have played much.<\/p>\n "If Alun Wyn had stayed fit all the way through, then Will Rowlands doesn't get as much time as he has and Will has been outstanding for us.<\/p>\n "So rather than look at the negatives of 'we're missing all these people,' and has it maybe stopped us winning against, particularly, South Africa, I think the bigger picture is telling us we've got a team that can fight toe to toe with all those injuries and that's a huge positive for us.<\/p>\n "The tanks right now are low, but I know that come the weekend we are going to be right and we are going to be ready for the fight."<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" James Slipper will complete a heartwarming career transformation when he replaces Michael Hooper as Wallabies captain for Sunday's (4.30am AEDT) season-ending Test against Wales in […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161261"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161261"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161264,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161261\/revisions\/161264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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