But just as Del dazzles as brightly as the chunk of bling stuck in his right earlobe, even his most ardent supporters now accept their hero will forever be tainted as a rough diamond.

This week's revelation that the 31-year-old had tested positive in a drug test is merely the latest transgression in a career where embarrassment hasn't been exclusively limited to the fumbling of a high ball.

Off the field, big Dell has been involved in several unsavoury incidents, usually fuelled by alcohol, which earned him the unenviable nickname 'Drunken Sailor'.

There have been fights inside nightclubs, fights outside nightclubs and a night in a police watch house. He has spat in a woman's face, put his fist threw a truck window and once threw up in a South African pot plant.

It was the last incident, earlier this year in Cape Town on tour with the Waratahs, that prompted a confused reaction in the third person.

'I have to make sure that when Wendell Sailor goes out,' blurted Wendell, 'he's got to realise it's not just for him, it's for his family and the Waratahs.'

Sailor wasn't under the influence during that act of contrition, but he vividly recalls the first time he got plastered. It was in 1995, at Brisbane's City Rowers nightclub, when rugby league's Broncos threw a 21st birthday bash for their newest star.

That night Wendell got giddy and tasted two parts of a potent cocktail for the first time; adulation and alcohol.

'You talk about going into a rock star world,' he said later. 'That's what it was like. All these people who I'd looked up to a couple of years earlier were my mates. There were blokes like Alfie Langer and Steve Renouf there. A year before I'd been watching them on TV, now I was playing with them.

'I'd been on a Kangaroo tour when I was 20, the Australian coach was trying to get me to his club, I'd just signed a good deal with the Broncos.

'I remember thinking that night, 'I'm getting pissed ... and I've earned the right to do it'.'

For the boy from Sarina, a township of 5,000 people in northern Queensland, it was the realisation of a dream.

Growing up there he had developed an aversion to the grog. 'I used to see people from my community just sitting around waiting for their welfare cheque so they could buy a carton of beer. I told myself I'd never be like that.'

Even after his latest drunken misdemeanour in February, Sailor insisted there were no underlying issues.

'People are saying now that I've got a drinking problem but that's garbage. I'm a social drinker. I like to have a drink with my mates after a game. That's part of footy and it always will be.'

Superstar status came quickly in a rugby league career where Sailor notched up 110 tries in 189 games for the Broncos, Queensland and the Kangaroos.

The barnstorming runs ranked regular comparison with Jonah Lomu. He was hailed as one of rugby league's all-time greats.

Weighing in at 110kg and rising 1.91 metres, the bullet-headed man mountain sported a cocky attitude that matched the pop-star persona. Not surprisingly, he more than stood out in the Australian bar crowd; a target for groupies and troublemakers alike.

His first brush with the law came in 1997 after he was charged with assaulting Marcus O'Sullivan at the City Rowers nightclub.Worse was to come in 1999 when he was fined for spitting in the face of woman outside a Townsville nightclub.

When Sailor switched codes in 2002 he told the doubters he was a 'changed man'. The birth of his son, in 1998, the death of his father and marriage in late 2001 to long-term partner Tara Vernon had helped him to 'grow up a little bit'. 'It's a new chapter in my life and hopefully it can continue to grow,' he said.

Australia's rugby union fraternity was divided by the expensive recruitment of league's brash glamour boy. The bling and pumping R&B music that came with Sailor were sharply at odds with rugby's conservative corduroy-wearing clique.

But chief executive John O'Neill saw Sailor as a fantastic weapon in the battle to raise rugby's profile on the ultra-competitive Aussie sporting landscape in advance of hosting the 2003 World Cup.

And coach Eddie Jones believed Sailor had the line-breaking and try-scoring abilities that could help the Wallabies retain the title they won in 1999.

'After a year or two you could be a pretty good rugby union player, but it's going to take a lot of hard work,' Jones told the new recruit.

Unfortunately for Sailor, intermittent flashes of brilliance have failed to disguise what has been, by his own high standards, a mediocre four years in union.

Critics had a field day when he failed to score in a 90-8 thrashing of Romania at the World Cup. He was dropped from the starting XV in the final against England.

That year Sailor admitted to finding the transition difficult. 'In league you get the ball so simply,' he said. 'You run, you tackle. In union there are moves, you have to learn to get to the breakdown, stay on your feet and clean up. A lot of those things make it a very difficult game.

'I don't know if I understand all the rules yet. You've got to try hard not to make mistakes.'

Off the field, there had been more controversy. In May 2002, Sailor was involved in a road rage incident when he got involved in a heated argument with two men in a truck. After putting his fist through the truck window, he apologised and paid for the damage.

But more lasting damage was done last year in a Cape Town nightclub two days before a Wallabies match against South Africa. Sailor was said to have been the peacemaker when he separated arguing teammates Lote Tuqiri and Matt Henjak. But rugby officials were apoplectic that the players were out drinking so late, and so close to a big game.

When Sailor left the Reds to join hated rivals the Waratahs this season he was already at the last-chance saloon in the minds of some rugby union officials.

His first competitive game was back in Brisbane in light blue colours, and his aggressive taunting in response to a verbal barrage by Reds' fans won him few friends.

And the following week, again in Cape Town, came another alcohol-fuelled incident outside another Cape Town nightspot. Frustrated at being injured for the Waratahs' next match, he sought the solace of a bar where fans wanted to talk rugby.

'Look, I'll talk some people's heads off, but ... that night I'd had enough,' Sailor said, noting that he had underestimated his 'celebrityness'.

One South African paper reported an intoxicated Sailor pushed another patron to the ground. On the way back to the hotel, he was sick in a pot plant.

Sailor said he 'couldn't really remember the incident', but probably sunk a few too many drinks. 'I pushed a bloke outside and then I think on the way home I was a bit crook,' he said after being sent back to Sydney in disgrace by furious team officials. 'Obviously it's not a good look. Not the best role model for kids, I suppose.'

On Friday night, the Waratahs bowed out of the Super 14 semi-finals without Sailor. They will be back next year, but it's highly unlikely Sailor will be with them.

In the past he has always pledged to make it up to his teammates. This time he won't get the chance.