Slipper ‘sick’ over pass

JAMES Slipper has admitted he felt “sick in the stomach” after throwing an intercept pass that almost saw the Wallabies knocked out of the Rugby World Cup.

But the man who saved his bacon with a match-winning kick, Wallabies five-eighth Bernard Foley, has backed the mentality that led to Slipper’s adventurous wide pass and said the team still wanted forwards to be in the backline playing attacking footy.

“Everyone is trying to criticise James for the pass but if you look at the outside there was a four-on-one overlap,” Foley said. “That’s what this team is about. We want to be able to show that we play rugby, we don’t fear what could go wrong.

“We want to look at the opportunities we can create. We want our forwards throwing those passes and playing and intertwining with the backs, because that is ultimately going to make us more of a threatening team and keep defences guessing.”

They are encouraging words to soothe Slipper’s mind now but late in the game against Scotland on Monday morning, all the Queensland prop could think of was wondering how people back home were reacting.

In the 73rd minute double-pumped a pass intended to go behind Tatafu Polota-Nau and Michael Hooper and find Drew Mitchell. Mark Bennett swooped and a distraught Slipper can be seen on his hands and knees with his head on the ground.

“I just remember thinking of my parents and everyone who got up early in the morning to watch us play and all the supporters,” Slipper said.

One of the more knockabout Wallabies, Slipper was down momentarily postmatch but teammates rallied around him and he fronted up to do media duties with a smile overnight.

Told he’d have an after-dinner speech for life, Slipper said: “I could have been that guy.”

Slipper isn’t kicking stones. He can’t afford to given Scott Sio is likely to miss the match and the loosehead prop is set to start the big match against the Pumas.

Slipper played in the Wallabies semi-final defeat in 2011 and says he would love to get a chance to put that disappointing performance right.

“If given the chance to play … it would be nice,” he said.