Just as Wendell Sailor used his last shot in league to rebuild his reputation, Justin Harrison hopes returning to the ACT Brumbies will let him ultimately leave rugby with his head held high.
Harrison will resume training with the Brumbies this morning while still serving an eight-month playing ban for using cocaine at an end-of-season party with his former English club Bath.
Sailor served a two-year ban for using the drug while playing for the NSW Waratahs in 2006. He was sacked by the club, served his suspension and this year made a successful comeback to rugby league with the St George Illawarra Dragons. After a season in which he re-established himself as a top performer, Sailor retired this month saying ''redemption happened for me on and off the field''.
While Harrison's suspension, which ends in January was shorter than Sailor's because his admitted drug use was out of competition, the 35-year-old's reputation was similarly tarnished.
But in a show of faith in his character, Brumbies coach Andy Friend and chief executive Andrew Fagan decided last week to offer him a contract as a replacement for the injured Peter Kimlin, who is likely to miss most or all of next season.
''I'm not drawing any comparisons to Wendell but there's no question that if I can reassure people that I'm the same person who gave everything he could for his country and the Brumbies and any team I've been part of, I'd welcome that,'' Harrison said.
The Brumbies have been forced to fight the Australian Rugby Union to win clearance for Harrison to return to Australian rugby. The ARU is understood to have had serious reservations about Harrison's off-field record and also his age.
It's also understood Harrison's long-standing feud with ARU high performance manager and his former Brumbies coach David Nucifora counted against him.
The Brumbies argued the ARU should not stand in the way of what they saw as a provincial matter and eventually the ARU relented.
Conscious that the Brumbies had gone out on a limb for him, Harrison said he could never fully make it up to them.
''To be given a Brumbies jersey again is a feeling words can't describe, but it really is a miracle to me,'' he said.
If Harrison can still perform on the field and stays in line off it, it could make for a rare tale of redemption at the club at which Harrison had always hoped to play out his career.
In 2003 then Brumbies coach Nucifora destroyed that hope when he didn't offer Harrison a new contract, forcing him to join the Waratahs. Despite that rejection, Harrison went on to play a key role for the Wallabies in the 2003 World Cup. After leaving NSW in 2005, he played for Irish club Ulster and then Bath, where he played 29 games before the cocaine incident ended his European career in disgrace.
Facing charges for bringing the sport into disrepute, Harrison quit the club and announced his immediate retirement, although it was a decision he quickly reversed.
''In a dishonourable situation I considered that the honourable thing to do,'' he said. ''In hindsight there was too much emotion involved for me to make that decision and in hindsight I shouldn't have made that public.
''Now, I'm absolutely certain my love affair with rugby has never been stronger.''
Harrison has maintained contact with Friend throughout his rugby career. Friend was his coach at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1994, the ACT under-21s and was an assistant coach while Harrison was with NSW. Friend said yesterday he had maintained faith in Harrison as a player and a person, saying he had made a mistake and been punished for it.
''I think I'm nearly as qualified as his father to talk about him as a bloke. I'm 100per cent convinced that he's learned from his mistakes and he's going to be a really positive role model for our players and good for the game,'' Friend said.
Harrison said he couldn't believe his luck at getting a second chance with the Brumbies.
''I don't believe in karma or fate particularly, but given what's gone on there must be some sort of intervention happening here, because this story for me is too fantastic to contemplate,'' he said.
''It's through no design of my own, in fact it's been a series of completely dishonourable occurrences that have made me available to be in this position. Certainly the demons are not behind me and I'm not thinking that everything's fine again, because it runs a lot deeper than playing a rugby game, but it's a small step towards some sort of reconciliation with myself and also the Canberra community of which I have so many wonderful memories.''
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