Tuqiri points way ahead

It was an encouraging vision of the future from a lad who had only taken up sport at 15 because he had always been in church in his Fijian village at weekends before then and who had only ever played one friendly high school union game before 2003.

Yet Sailor? Dodgy in defence, anonymous in attack and five years Tuqiri's senior, he looked like the past.

Jones got his man Tuqiri who, after lucrative advances from league including his old Brisbane employers, could easily have been wooed back to the Kangaroos and perhaps have been playing in the second half of tomorrow's great rugby double header - the Tri-Nations rugby league final at Elland Road.

Instead, Tuqiri agreed a new contract which will keep him a Wallaby until after the next World Cup in 2007 when he'll still only be 28. This was cause for major Aussie celebration because it's not only there that they now claim Tuqiri as the world's best winger - even better than All Black Joe Rokocoko, reckons England's defensive coach Phil Larder - and the foundation stone of the Wallabies' rebuilding programme towards 2007.

In only his second year as a union player, he has scorched over for 10 tries in 11 Tests. Nominated as one of the five international players of the year, he was even hailed by French captain Fabien Pelous as the most successful league convert in the professional era, ahead of our own Robinson.

Listening to Robinson yesterday, it sounded as if the England captain wouldn't necessarily argue.

"In attack Lote's awesome and he's playing full of confidence," Robinson said. "He's a big guy and we know what danger he poses if given the room.

We must give him as little space as possible.

"He's done exceptionally well in a very short transition period. At one stage, opposition teams would have targeted him with kicks behind but he's worked hard on that and all areas."

Basically, Tuqiri already seems the more complete player than his wing colleague. Whereas Sailor often appears to struggle to heed Robinson's old advice "On the wing, don't wait to make things happen" and lets the game pass him by, Tuqiri seems everywhere.

He is intuitive and inventive enough to be considered by Pelous as the " architect" of Australian back play.

Yet Robinson remains one of the most ardent admirers of Sailor and, indeed, it would be foolhardy to disregard a man who, for all that he can be maddeningly hit and miss, has occasionally demonstrated what the fuss was once all about.

He's scored twice in three games against England, including his best, a wonderful solo effort, in Melbourne in the summer of 2003. This year, he can consider himself unlucky to have suffered a hamstring strain during the warm-up to the Brisbane Test a g ainst weary English opponents ripe for the taking.

He might have had the field day which his replacement, the excellent South African-born Clyde Rathbone, enjoyed with a hat-trick in the 51-15 rout.

Sailor has only got his starting place back now because Rathbone has a groin strain.

It is yet one more chance for him to live up to the old billing and, despite the cynics saying he's likely to end up doing a Iestyn Harris and returning to a game in which he really felt wanted, Tuqiri backs him to come good because, as a great friend and admirer, he has always been in awe of Sailor's ability.

Yet just as surely as he ended up eclipsing Sailor in their last days together at the Broncos, the apprentice has dashed past the sorcerer for the Wallabies. Never mind Wendell's world; this is Tuqiri time.