Cooper given late call-up for Akuila
BY ROBERT DILLON
COOPER Vuna will play his first NRL game of the season after Newcastle flyer Akuila Uate was ruled out of tonight's heritage-round clash with the Roosters at Sydney Football Stadium.
Uate has been unable to train all week because of a family funeral in Fiji.
The 21-year-old arrived back in Sydney yesterday afternoon but Knights coach Brian Smith felt it would be better to give him the night off.
"We just felt like it wasn't the best preparation for Aku, so we've left him out and Cooper gets his chance," Smith said.
Vuna has played 30 top-grade games for Newcastle since his mid-season arrival in 2007, but he is yet to feature this year after suffering a knee injury in the opening pre-season trial match against Central Charlestown.
He returned to action in the Newcastle district competition last weekend, playing 50 minutes for Cessnock, and Smith felt he would be more match-hardened than Wes Naiqama, who has missed the past two games with a hamstring injury.
Smith has warned his players to ignore the points table and pay the big-name Roosters due respect.
The Roosters are one rung off the bottom of the ladder after three wins from their first nine games, and on recent form, fourth-placed Newcastle will enter the match as hot favourites.
But the Bondi-based glamour boys still field a formidable line-up, on paper at least, including internationals Braith Anasta, Willie Mason, Mark O'Meley, Craig Fitzgibbon, Sam Perrett, Setaimata Sa, Shaun Kenny-Dowall and NSW halfback Mitchell Pearce.
Roosters coach Brad Fittler said yesterday it was time for his star-studded team to "start doing something", and Smith said Newcastle could not afford to drop their intensity after last weekend's lucky win over Gold Coast.
"That's our test now," Smith said. "They're the challenges once you get out of the basement scrounging around for a win.
"If we want to stay away from that, we've got to show that we can do that this week.
"In saying that, the Roosters have truckloads of rep players more than us.
"So on an individual-type thing, you'd have to say they've got a way better team than us. But that's not how you win footy games."
Knights skipper Kurt Gidley was also wary of the big-match experience Newcastle's opposition would be able to call on tonight.
"I think it's been shown this year that there's no such thing as an easy game," Gidley said.
"This is a danger game, if anything.
"They've got some world-class players in their team, and if they put it together, they're always going to be tough."
Having won five of their past six games and losing the other in controversial circumstances Gidley felt the Knights were entitled to be confident.
"Last week was a little bit scratchy, but if we stick to what we've been doing the last few weeks, in periods of each game, for a full 80 minutes, we'll do pretty well, I think," he said.
Smith wants his playmakers to be more clinical with the ball tonight after Newcastle kicked out on the full four times last weekend and at times lacked direction.
Jarrod Mullen and Ben Rogers have been named as Newcastle's starting halves.
Scott Dureau was not selected in the 17-man squad, but it would be no real surprise if he was a late inclusion.
"All three of them were probably a little bit below their best," Smith said.
Herald
and yes I think we should win, if we don't we need to have a good hard look at ourselves!
