KNIGHT IN FOCUS: Akuila Uate

The media seem to love Yow Yeh, and we all know the Dally M favours the popular players. But really, Yow Yeh shouldn't get it because in terms of stats, Uate is the clear winner. Yow Yeh's form lately has been pretty erratic. Not as good as at the start of the year, anyway.

Nightingale would be a good chance for it, too. He's still been quite good this year IMOL
 
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'still don't get how yow yeh was picked ahead of uate in the test.... all yow yeh can do is finish while uate can do it all
 
Uate stamped himself as one of the better wingers in the world. He, along with Gallen were the shining lights for NSW all series. Aku hardly ever did a thing wrong... and got that well deserved try.

He will be better for the run, let's hope he brings the experience back to the Knights now. He is a match winner.
 
Uate has every right to be picked over Morris and Boyd for Australia. Also on Boyd not being picked for Australia I heard on the Big Sports Breakfast that he is a real 'loose cannon' and ***** to coach obviously not in Bennetts eyes
 
Loose cannon or not he will be picked on the wing for Australia at the end of the year & would've played in the test if he wasn't injured at the time. The other wing spot will go to Morris, Yow Yeh or Uate.
 
I'd have thought the Australian wingers would be Boyd and Hayne, if both are fit.
 
Uate should be on the wing for Australia. He's the best winger in the game without a doubt IMO.

Aidos said:
Nightingale would be a good chance for it, too. He's still been quite good this year IMOL
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Love Nightingale as a player but he's NZ.

LYNDOS2010 said:
Also on Boyd not being picked for Australia I heard on the Big Sports Breakfast that he is a real 'loose cannon' and ***** to coach obviously not in Bennetts eyes
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Read an interview where Soward was giving Boyd wraps and saying how good a trainer he is.

Also think it might've been Matt Cooper who said something along the lines of "when you watch him train you just know he's a gun".

That could've been Soward too though. :lol:
 
Kiwis can still win Dally M medals as far as I'm aware? haha

I'd love to see Uate try to use some footwork when returning kicks ... try to make a break rather than just use himself as a giant battering ram. He seems to lost a bit of fleet of foot, for size. Personally I'd like to see him make some Ken Nagas-type runs, he could be devastating.

Apart from that, can't fault him. He's stepped up to Origin and looked in place. Mind you, he's already played internationals and looked in place, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
 
Uate Is Not Eligible to play for Australia for the next 3 years cause he played for fiji in the 2009 pacific cup.Which is an outrage cause Hayne was allowed to after he played for fiji in the world cup.
 
Uate SHOULDN'T be eligible for Australia until 2012, but Australia somehow have bypassed the rules and now he has.

Hayne could revert to Australia in 2009 because it was immediately after a World
Cup, and you are free to change allegiances straight after one.

Uate's switch to Australia after he played for Fiji in the 2009 Pacific Cup goes against all international eligibility laws and just makes international rugby league seem a complete joke.

Hopefully they sort out some decent laws around this in the near future and actually abide by them.
 
Sir George said:
Uate Is Not Eligible to play for Australia for the next 3 years cause he played for fiji in the 2009 pacific cup.Which is an outrage cause Hayne was allowed to after he played for fiji in the world cup.
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He's played Origin since, he can play Kangas.
 
jamesgould said:
No, it's great.
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Only 2 teams that win everything, Australian and New Zealand, and even then the only time NZ is beating Australia is the occasional WC FInal after Australia flogs them sveral times before.

Coupled with the fact that like half the teams that play in the major first rate internation comps are pacific island countires from a small portion of the globe with extremely small populations, and the majoirty of the other half is the indiviually territories of the U.K of which England seems less competitive following the split.

Then theres the fact outside the UK there is next to no representation from countries in major comps from europe, the americas, africa or asia.

Soi would call internation rugby league a joke.
 
Two teams can win it, which is more than Origin.

England made the 2009 final, so there are three competitive sides.

In the next rung down in the Pacific, Tonga were leading NZ 10 minutes into the second half of a game in 2009 ... all the Pacific teams play exciting styles and have their moments, and playing each other, they are great to watch (just look at the Tonga vs Samoa game from the 2008 World Cup).

The Europe sides are also very interesting. France is going downhill slightly after a good few years where they almost knocked off the Kiwis in 2007 (leading with five minutes left), and a couple of close results against NZ and Aus. Wales really seem to be improving, making the Four Nations this year which will be interesting. then Ireland have gone downhill since the World Cup, but had a great tournament there. Then there are a heap of countries in Europe who are challenging to take part in the next European Cup.

There's plenty of good quality international sides, just because the tournaments don't get the same publicity as they do in union (and how many teams can win that world cup - three?) doesn't mean it's a joke.

Personally it is the highlight of the league year for me, when the internationals come around. I guess if I was an Aussie who kept losing finals to the Kiwis I might feel differently.
 
Internationals > Origin.
Origin was a marketing ploy, albeit a successful one but playing for your country should be what all players strive for.
 
Uate

Seeing as everyone seems to be making threads about players, I figured I'd make one on Uate.

and this is not criticising him (although he still isn't attacking kicks in defense, and he was found out a couple of times in defense)

I feel like Uate runs back to straight, now there's nothing that gets the crowd pumped up more then Uates hard charges at the line from kick returns (except maybe a try), but I just feel like he runs to straight some times, he has speed, a great step, and is hard to tackle. I feel as if sometimes he should be running sideways more, and stepping in on the tired defense. He has the speed to be running around the outside of players, but always just runs straight at the defense.
 
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