Rupert Guinness talks to Brumbies lock Justin Harrison on his return to rugby following an eight-month drugs ban in The Sydney Morning Herald.
"Justin Harrison was one of the most imposing and hard-edged second-rowers in world rugby. But after the veteran of 34 Tests for Australia last year admitted to using cocaine, and retired humiliated and remorseful, simply ''getting through the day'' became the biggest challenge of his life.
''I became very insular and my horizons became very narrow,'' Harrison told the Herald of the weeks following his departure from English club Bath after his confession of drug use. ''I wasn't looking at anything other than getting through the day and managing the people closest to me, to reconcile that I had let [down] so many who had helped me … to try and placate them [and make them believe] I was the same person they had faith in when they started supporting me.
''There were many times of sadness, but overriding it was that I was enormously proud of my career to date - and still am - and wanted to maintain an association with rugby. So it became a matter of trying to find how I could continue that association and reduce the reticence of people around me.''
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