KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - Dual international Wendell Sailor has backed repeat offender Lote Tuqiri to emerge from his spate of off-field dramas to be Australia's prime weapon at next month's World Cup.
The star winger's nightmare season hit a low this week when he and prop Matt Dunning were slapped
with midnight curfews following a late night out in Brisbane.
Sailor, who is serving a two-year ban for cocaine, said his close mate would be hurting from the public fallout from his latest indiscretion.
"I think Lote is that good of a player that if the Wallabies are going to win the World Cup, he is the man [to do it] and he has to stand up," Sailor said.
"This year has not been one of his best years on or off the field but I think he is just too talented not to aim up."
Sailor had no doubts that his long-time teammate would be a key component in Australia's drive for a third World Cup.
It has been a season to forget for Tuqiri, who signed a lucrative five-year deal in March to stick with rugby.
His list of minor indiscretions have started to pile up and seriously damage his reputation as one of Australia's most popular sportsmen.
It started in January when he failed a fitness test at a Wallabies pre-season camp and he struggled to find the Super 14 tryline as drawn-out contract negotiations began impacting on his form.
Then he pushed Sam Norton-Knight in the back following his teammate's regrettable last gasp option during a Super 14 match before keeping in the headlines with the speaker phone scandal involving selector Michael O'Connor and Waratahs back Peter Hewat.
With the NSW Waratahs dismal season completed, the highly-paid player was then ordered to undergo speed training and missed two tests.
He then shone the spotlight back on himself by sleeping in and failing a breathalyser test during the Tri-Nations and was rubbed out for two more tests, including the Bledisloe decider.
Sailor didn't think the humiliation of the curfew would have Tuqiri - who is signed with the ARU till after the 2011 World Cup - pondering a return to league but Wallabies great Mark Ella felt it would be "testing his commitment to the game".
Ella and former national captain Andrew Slack felt Tuqiri's latest dramas shouldn't badly affect Australia's World Cup preparations though.
They believed there was sufficient time for the Wallabies to regroup before next month's rugby extravaganza and that Tuqiri's form wouldn't suffer.
"We have probably not got the best out of him but he has the next few weeks to prove himself and he is aware of that and there is no doubt he has the talent and capacity to do that," said Ella.
AAP
