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SYDNEY - Wallabies rugby star Lote Tuqiri risks having his A$6 million ($6.9 million) playing contract torn up if he steps out of line once more.
Angry ARU boss John O'Neill issued both Tuqiri and prop Matt Dunning with a formal warning and imposed a midnight curfew on the wayward pair for Australia's upcoming Rugby World Cup campaign following their all-night drinking session in Brisbane last week.
O'Neill said the hardline stance was necessary because both players had a history of alcohol-related incidents and drinking until 5.30am was "stretching the friendship".
The curfew, which also covers training camps, applies only to Tuqiri and Dunning and not the rest of the Wallabies squad contesting the world championship in France starting on September 7.
The punishment was recommended following a meeting chaired by the ARU's new high performance unit manager Pat Howard and involving Wallabies coach John Connolly, captain Stirling Mortlock, team managers Phil Thomson and Chris Webb and legal chief Nick Weeks.
"One or two o'clock might have been acceptable but, given the start of the evening was 6.30-7 and once you get to 4.30 and you're still going at 5.30, I think that's stretching the friendship basically," O'Neill said.
"Neither of them came without form, so you can't look at this (episode) as being in isolation.
"They weren't two players fronting up who had never lost their way."
While Tuqiri and Dunning avoided a fine and the added embarrassment of having a total alcohol ban placed on them, O'Neill said they left ARU headquarters "taken aback" and "under no illusions" that further indiscretions would not be tolerated.
"We have not hit them with a feather duster," O'Neill said.
"Clinically, there was no offence committed, (but) they did put themselves in harm's way by being out at a very late hour.
"(It was) unacceptable behaviour and the nature of the letter and the nature of the conversation (today) left them in no doubt as to what the ramifications are if there is another offence."
Tuqiri, 27, and Dunning, 28, were caught in the crossfire after a boozy night out following the Wallabies' team dinner to celebrate the completion of a five-day boot camp.
While Tuqiri and Dunning were not present or implicated when a taxi driver was allegedly assaulted outside their hotel early last Friday, ARU officials were annoyed they had returned from a nightclub to the hotel with a group including Broncos players Karmichael Hunt and Ian Lacey plus strangers, one of whom was later charged over the assault.
O'Neill was troubled that Tuqiri and Dunning needed convincing their behaviour was not befitting of a Wallaby, especially so close to the start of a World Cup.
"Both of these players struggled to understand that they'd done anything wrong and we've just had a pretty mature conversation with them," O'Neill said.
"It was a very firm, mature conversation around our responsibility as an employer to get them to understand 'hey, there is something wrong here' because it was a bit disconcerting to think there wasn't something wrong.
"We've been through an exercise of explaining the perception in the public arena of wrong versus right and we just want to emphasise the words 'putting yourselves in harm's way'.
Howard said the possibility of leaving Tuqiri and Dunning behind when the Wallabies fly out next Thursday for a pre-World Cup training camp in Portugal was never discussed, nor was a blanket curfew on the entire 30-man squad.
- AAP
