Uate gets the blessing to be a flying Kangaroo
ADRIAN PROSZENKO
August 8, 2010
JULIE and David Uate reckon their son will still be representing Fiji even if he wears the green and gold.
''It would be like him following Lote Tuqiri,'' said Julie, the stepmother of Newcastle
sensation Akuila Uate.
''There would be kids in his home village wanting to be him. If he could do that for Fiji, that would be something great.''
Aku Uate is a step closer to representing the Blues and Kangaroos after his manager, Darryl Mather, penned a letter to Australian Rugby League supremo Geoff Carr during the week outlining his desire to play for Australia.
The former Australian Schoolboy will need a special exemption to qualify for the Four Nations tournament after representing Fiji in the Pacific Cup last November.
But Uate has good reason for making the switch - it's understood Australian selectors have earmarked him as a potential replacement for AFL-bound Israel Folau for the end-of-season Test program.
If he does make the change, he won't be turning his back on Fiji. The 22-year-old will send a chunk of his representative earnings back home to help out his family, including his mother, Kula.
''His mum still lives in Fiji,'' David Uate said. ''When he became a professional rugby league player I said 'What are you going to do?' He said he wanted to help mum and I support any decision he makes. These are things we discussed before I brought him over here in 2005.
''My wife over here is an Australian woman, but I said 'Aku
you should be grateful that two great women did the job for you to get you where you are at this stage. It's not just mum in Fiji but mum in Australia'.
''I tell him 'Whatever happens, don't forget where you come from and the people who helped you get there'. Without the support of all those people, he'd still be in Fiji.''
Aku Uate, originally from the remote Fijian island of Lakemba, has been in scintillating form for Newcastle and currently tops the NRL try-scorers list with 20 going into today's clash with the Bulldogs at EnergyAustralia Stadium.
However, Julie Uate predicted the best was yet to come and even offered Knights coach Rick Stone some friendly advice. ''I would just like to say that we are very proud of Aku and his achievements,'' she said. ''Newcastle will see the best of him if they play him at fullback, he is a natural.
''That's where he started his career in junior football and the talent scouts saw his talent
if he never did anything else again in football we would still be proud of him.
''Again I couldn't be more proud of him if he was my own flesh and blood, and needless to say news day at school is nearly always about what Aku did at footy.''
David Uate said there weren't any mixed emotions about his son's potential change of allegiance.
''Not really, he played for the Australian Schoolboys a few years back,'' he said.
''Playing for Fiji was nice. But there were a few things that happened that I wasn't too happy about, especially when he got injured.
''Management didn't do much and in the end I had to take him to hospital for treatment.
''I explained to him that playing for Fiji is nice, but 'I don't like the way they treat you'.''
If Aku Uate becomes eligible for Australia, there's every chance the Kangaroos could field two wingers of Fijian heritage. Jarryd Hayne made the switch back to the green and gold after representing Fiji in the 2008 World Cup.
''It would be very nice if they could both play together for Australia in the Four Nations,'' David Uate said.
Sporting talent runs deep in the Uate family. Aku Uate's grandfather played cricket for Fiji while his uncle, Alipate Korovou, was an Australian boxing champion in the middleweight division.
Korovou fought the likes of Tony Mundine and Monty Betham - the father of the Kiwi forward of the same name - in the 1970s.
David Uate said: ''There's a lot of sporting talent in the family.''
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...g-to-be-a-flying-kangaroo-20100807-11pez.html
