'Potentially': Wallabies prop James Slipper hints at retirement after joining rare club in 150th Test

James Slipper will become the most capped player in world rugby if his wife Kara has her way, but the Australian star has hinted that may not be the case.

The venerable Wallabies prop played his 150th Test at Eden Park on Saturday as the All Blacks retained the Bledisloe Cup with a rollercoaster 33-24 win.

It meant Slipper, 36, joined an exclusive club of just three men to reach the 150 milestone.

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Wales legend Alun Wyn Jones leads the way with 170 Tests, of which 12 were played for the British and Irish Lions.

But New Zealand great Sam Whitelock, who played 153, is now in Slipper's crosshairs.

However, Slipper has now hinted he could call time on his Test career as soon as next week.

"Potentially, but there's still a bit of water that needs to go under the bridge," he told reporters when asked if Perth could be his last.

"I won't call it now, but potentially."

Asked if he could be persuaded to continue on until the end of the year, Slipper was non-committal.

"It comes down to what's best for the team," he replied.

"That's probably what's going to make my decision. At this stage, this will be the last year I'll be playing. Whether that ends next week or on the spring tour will still be confirmed."

It was a vastly different response to that of his wife, Kara, just a few hours prior, who spoke to Sonny Bill Williams about the possibility of her husband breaking Jones' record.

"Oh, I think so, What is it, two years till the World Cup? We're so proud of of him," she said.

"He just keeps going and going. We're just so proud of him and everything that he's achieved."

Morgan Turinui suggested Kara just didn't want him around home.

"I don't know if we'd know what to do with each other," she quipped.

Slipper made his debut as a 21-year-old in 2010 against England.

He is beloved within Wallabies camp for his honesty, bravery and ability to connect with players of all ages, cultures and backgrounds.

Reaching a milestone would have been unthinkable in 2018, when Slipper was banned by Rugby Australia after testing positive to cocaine twice within a matter of months.

At that stage he had played 86 Tests but was battling depression during some dark personal struggles.

He had torn his Achilles tendon and was also struggling to cope with his mother's terminal cancer diagnosis.

"Extremely humbling to hit 150," Slipper told Stan Sport post-match.

"There's a lot of sacrifice that goes into it, and mainly from the family, Kara, and I've got little Lily here tonight. So, yeah, extremely proud, mate. Gutted about the result but who would have thought? 150...

"It's been a great week, Sonny. The boys got around me and I always find it a little bit awkward around the milestone weeks. But the thing I was pleased about was just how well we prepped for the game.

"It wasn't just my milestone, we had Ryan (Lonergan) on debut and Tate (McDermott) on his 50th as well.

"So we really wanted to prepare well for this game and and represent those boys as well. To our credit, we did that tonight, we just probably didn't get the rub of the green a bit and and, yeah the ABs were too good."

The Wallabies remain in the hunt for the Rugby Championship with one game to play.

"There is encouragement," Slipper said.

"We wanted to come here and win, we wanted to break the hoodoo and it's not to be, clearly. But where this team is going and where we have come from is chalk and cheese really. There's a lot of belief in the group, we're working hard, we're preparing well, the future's bright for this group.

"We've just got to keep that belief, keep working hard and we've got another game in Perth which we're excited about and we're going to go up against another good All Blacks team."

Italian referee Andrea Piardi penalised Australia 15 times to New Zealand's 10.

The Harry Potter yellow card and inaction on Jordie Barrett's lifting tackle on James O'Connor led Turinui to claim Piardi was "not up to this occasion" and had "been appointed by World Rugby in error."

Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt was more diplomatic but still questioned aspects of the officiating post-match.

"It's really hard, because what we've perceived is inconsistencies," Schmidt told Stan Sport.

"That makes it difficult, and then players are asking us questions and we get clarification afterwards."

Schmidt did, however, put responsibility back on his players.

"I do think that we've just got to be better at adapting to how the referee is refereeing," he said.

"If you don't do that, then you pay the price, as we did today. We've just got to look back at some of those penalties, really, because they're what really hurt us."

Australia have not beaten the All Blacks at Eden Park since 1986.

And it was one-way traffic when returning halfback Cam Roigard scored the first of his two tries to give the home side a 20-3 lead after just 26 minutes.

But the Wallabies' admirable ability to climb out of deep holes continued as they swung back hard to trail only 20-17 at the break.

"I'm disappointed, the players are disappointed, but I'm also proud of the efforts they put in, I'm proud of the way we stayed in the fight. I thought with two points in it with 10 to go, we're right in the fight. And after being 20-3 again early on," Schmidt said.

"We didn't quite nail the moments that we needed to."

Wingers Caleb Clarke and Leroy Carter also scored tries for New Zealand while the Wallabies got reward through Potter, Billy Pollard and Carlo Tizzano.

"It's good enthusiasm and they're really working at their craft," Schmit said.

"They know that they can help each other by doing their job really well, and that domino allows us to create a little bit of uncertainty in the defence.

"And on the back of that, we can be really effective in getting advantage line or getting those clean breaks."

New Zealand 33 (Cam Roigard 2, Caleb Clarke, Leroy Carter tries; Beauden Barrett conversion, penalty, Damian McKenzie conversion, 2 penalties) Australia 24 (Billy Pollard, Harry Potter, Carlo Tizzano tries; James O'Connor 3 conversions, penalty). HT: 20-17