How do you build a team where people will run through a wall for each other? Not metaphorically. Literally.

James Slipper, the most capped Wallaby of all time. Nic White, the third most capped scrum half in Australian rugby history. Two men who've spent more time with each other than with their families, who've argued hard on the training paddock and sat next to each other every Tuesday team dinner for over a decade.

Their answer isn't team building. It isn't trust falls. It isn't a values poster on the wall.

Slips opens up on his 2018 rock bottom and the rebuild that gave him the longest career of any Wallaby in history. Nic on the chip on his shoulder that ran most of his career, the sepsis that nearly took him out after he hung up the boots, and the word he never used until now: fragile.

Two careers. One friendship. A blueprint for the leaders who are tired of culture being a buzzword.

03:00 — How it started: Nic's first run-in with Slips on the field

05:10 — The relationship that goes deeper than friendship and why that matters for performance

07:30 — "If we brought corporates to watch a Wallabies camp, they'd go... do you guys even like each other?"

10:00 — The Tuesday night team dinner test and why everyone scanned the room for Slips

13:25 — Nic's career in one line: never really felt wanted. 77 test caps later, here's what kept him going

17:55 — The "f*** you" fuel: where it came from, and how long it ran on it

22:10 — When the chip on the shoulder finally became something else and the moment Nic stopped playing for himself

28:35 — Slips on stumbling into a career and what reinvention actually looks like

39:20 — Post-career surgery, sepsis, and the moment the invincible mindset ran out of road

43:05 — "Fragile." Not a word you expect from Nic White. What changed.

49:10 — The next generation: why today's players want to know the why, not just the what

49:45 — Disagree and commit: how high-performing teams hold both honesty and alignment at once

Follow Nic on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/white_nic/?hl=en
Follow Slips on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamesslipper/?hl=en

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