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