A relieved Karmichael Hunt admitted on Saturday he thought he might never play rugby in Australia again during the darkest times of his drug-tainted limbo.

The controversial Hunt gave an inner glimpse after making his comeback for Souths on the Gold Coast, a first since his world spun into chaos with a late-night arrest last December.

For the best and worst reasons, Hunt is never far from the spotlight because he threw the final, long pass for the game tying try on full-time for 24-all against Bond University at their campus ground.

“I’m grateful to play footy … it’s good to be back,” Hunt said on the sidelines after his 31-minute cameo at fullback.

Just playing was a breakthrough: “I’d be lying not to say I didn’t think that would be the case from what I was hearing.”

Hunt’s joy is far from code-wide because former Wallaby Dan Crowley, an undercover policeman who combated Brisbane’s 1980s drug trade, has expressed his dismay at his club offering Hunt his lifeline back to rugby.

“I’m very disappointed Souths have done this when Hunt’s club Norths did show the fortitude to stand up for principles in the game by saying there was no place for him there,” Crowley said.

“I didn’t agree with how light his punishment was in 2015 (with a five-game ban) when the message should have been stronger that there is no place for cocaine in sport and I’m uncomfortable after the most recent events.”

It was Hunt’s first match in seven months and first since last December when he was arrested in a Fortitude Valley car park in Brisbane where cocaine was discovered, according to police, on the ground.

Cocaine possession charges were dropped because of lack of evidence at a February court appearance but Hunt’s place in the sport, at the Queensland Reds and with the Wallabies has been in question ever since.

When told some fans would shun him and that he’d made it difficult for any fan to get behind him unconditionally, Hunt was up front.

“You’re right. Everyone who knows me understands I’m not perfect but I do my best to give everything to family, friends and football,” Hunt said.

“I do make mistakes and I have let people down and heavy-heartedly that really effects me.

“I can’t thank Souths, the president Tony (Shepley) and the boys here enough for the chance.

“The body does feel good because six or seven months off was a blessing in disguise (for my body) getting over niggles I’ve have had since forever.”

You never know how comeback moments will play out and the Bond Uni ground announcer did not disappoint.

“I don’t know who it is in the No. 18 jersey but he looks familiar,” the announcer said without even mentioning Hunt’s name when he ran on as a replacement.

He called for an early ball to make a full throttle 10m run but the pro-Bond crowd roared when Hunt spilt his fourth touch cold from fumbling a Quade Cooper pass.

The two cogs to club rugby’s $1 million-a-year backline duo both had parts in the dramatic finish.

With time up, Hunt spun a long pass to put winger Emori Waqavulagi over for his hat-trick try for 24-all. Cooper’s conversion to win from near touch speared to the right.

It was seven months since Hunt’s previous game. Then, he was buzzing with a sixth Test against Scotland in Edinburgh and a new two-year deal recently signed to deliver him a cool $1 million.

On Saturday, was the start of a long road back. He will feel part of the fog has lifted but no one yet knows where that road leads or what roadblocks still lie ahead.