Tuqiri admits making"silly mistakes" December 15, 2009
Lote Tuqiri made his Heineken Cup debut admitting: "I've let myself down and I owe it to myself to put it right."
He has scored a try in a World Cup Final, won 67 caps for Australia and been a star of both league and union.
Yet Leicester's new recruit is perhaps better known for a series of misdemeanors which finally led to the Australian Rugby Union tearing up his contract last summer.
"Coming to Leicester is a fresh start, a new challenge and exactly what I needed," he said ahead of his European Cup bow at French club Clermont Auvergne.
"I've got to prove the doubters wrong and prove to myself that I can still play at the highest level."
Too often over the past five years the doubters have been proved right, even if he does claim "the media have built a perception of me".
Separate incidents have certainly been pieced together to form a picture, or perception if you prefer.
They range from late-night drinking sessions and shoving and verbally abusing a teammate during a game, to failing a breath test at training.
"I blew over the limit because I'd been drinking the night before," Tuqiri admitted. "I shouldn't have done that."
He also once put a conversation with a Wallabies selector on speakerphone. "I shouldn't have done that either."
And last July he cemented his bad-boy reputation when he was sacked by the ARU for another breach of discipline.
"There are a lot of things I shouldn't have done," Tuqiri repeated.
"I should have been smarter. I was young, famous, wealthy and too much in a comfort zone.
"But I am older now, wiser, and I have responsibility to two young sons - and to a club who have taken a punt on me."
Maybe he has matured. He is yet to score a try for Leicester or even see much of the ball, let alone a dry pitch and a bit of sunshine. But he hasn't complained.
Contrast that with two years ago when he looked at the England team, a week before losing to them, and declared that Jason Robinson was their only back of world class.
"It probably wasn't the best thing to say before a big game," he said with a laugh.
"I stand by it, but the people in charge don't like to hear that stuff."
Tuqiri is a hard man to read. In one breath he won't rule out playing for Australia again, in the next he talks about playing for Fiji, the country of his birth, in the 2011 World Cup.
He says he could stay at Leicester beyond the summer, but then Aussie rugby league outfit Wests Tigers claim he is about to sign for them.
What is certain is that at his best Tuqiri is too hot to handle. Just ask England.
In two massive World Cup clashes with the Wallabies in 2003 and 2007 they conceded two tries - both to him.
"And my best is still to come, I fully believe that," insisted the 30-year-old.
"I've got a lot of juice left in the tank and a lot of goals to fulfil within myself.
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