Evergreen Adam MacDougall and greenhorn Aku Uate on song
BY BRETT KEEBLE
THE veteran and the rookie of the Newcastle back line shared the limelight in yesterday's 39-12 victory over Souths.
In what appears certain to be his last season at the Knights, 33-year-old international Adam MacDougall rekindled memories of his glory days by scoring two tries at right centre against his old club.
On the other edge, 20-year-old left winger Aku Uate bagged a brace in only his second NRL appearance and first at home.
Apart from scoring half of Newcastle's eight tries, Uate and MacDougall combined to make five line breaks and run for 299 metres.
"It was great getting out there in front of the home crowd," said Uate, who scored on debut at Cronulla a week earlier. "I prepared well to play this week. I was named 19th man but I was pretty happy when he [coach Brian Smith] picked me to start on the wing."
Uate recently signed a one-year contract extension that will keep him in Newcastle until the end of 2009, but the Knights have told MacDougall he is not in their plans beyond this year. MacDougall felt compelled to produce something special after learning yesterday that pivot Chris Bailey had pulled out with an infected hand.
"The older you get, the harder it gets sometimes to get motivated, but there was a lot of motivation this week," MacDougall said.
"Our season was balancing on a knife's edge and that's all the motivation I needed, and I had a visit from Gids [Kurt Gidley] this morning to tell me Bails wasn't playing.
"We talked about the fact the older guys needed to lift, and I thought all the older guys responded pretty well. It was a great effort today, and it was a very important two points.
". . . We were given a great game plan today and that's probably the first time this year that we've stuck at it for 80 minutes."
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