Who he is
MY name is Akuila Uate. I was born in Sigatoka, brought up in the village of Sovi which is in the interior of Sigatoka and grew up in Votualevu Village until I left for Australia in 2003 when I was 16 years old. It was weird in the start, in my head I had to do it for me and the family. I did well for myself and I was pretty happy with that
The iron maiden
My mum did everything for of us. I am the youngest of five, got three elder brothers and a sister. Mum raised us since we were young. My elder brother and I were raised by mum’s parents. Mum supported us and now she has retired from work, we support her now but she has done everything from devotion in the morning, working to paying the school fees. We have to give back to her. She still lives in the village so we support her now. She doesn’t want to leave.
Childhood
I was always cheeky, the loudest one in the family. I couldn’t keep still. I did everything for my mum and grandparents but I am always the one who had the energy to do everything, around the village. Throughout my primary school, I was always the guy that plays the best in sports all the time but sometimes I did not concentrate on my school work.
Since, I came out of this world, I pretty got much a hiding every day. I got hiding for not doing mum’s chores- all five of us had chores like washing clothes, washing my grandfather’s stuff and everything. Usually, we would go and play touch rugby and volleyball and when mum comes home we will run home but sometimes we were too late. Sometimes we forgot, we got massive hidings on those ones. Sometimes we got hidings for falling asleep in church, she would come back from work and twist our ears. After the twist in the ear, we would go home and get a hiding before lunch time. And the biggest thing is watching movies and then missing Sunday school. Playing on Sunday was a no, either at the beach or anywhere. We had to sit still at home, sleep and be ready for Sunday school. That was the main thing for mum, she was very spiritual had done everything for us, we followed everything she said. She has been preaching to us ever since we came out of this world. She raised us through everything, she made sure everything we did, we did it with the best of our ability every time, the main part was listening, every time we came to the end of our devotion she would ask each of us what did she preach about and boom … lost. So, that was one of the main things —— concentrating on every little thing she said. Because all the little things she said, is pretty much what I am doing now. Doing little things right, that was always her message every night. And serve God in everything and doing everything to the best of my ability. That is what I am doing now. I think she is a little proud of me of what I am doing now, I hope I’ll make her more proud later on hopefully. Some people don’t like doing the small stuff but they want to go straight to the end.
But with mum, you have to start with the little ones and then get to the end even if you have to start again. That’s what I am doing now.
In football, you to do the little things to get your body right for the game. The one per cent that people don’t like doing before a game. And it has been a habit for me for some time.
Language barrier
I didn’t know how to speak in English and I struggled a bit when I went to Australia. I had a lot of Fijians in my school and they were all speaking English the whole time. I tried speaking in English but I was speaking the Nadro dialect most times. It took me like two years, because I was hanging around my sports academy class all the time so I picked and chose whatever I could. Most of the times, I am always quiet at the back hardly knowing what they are laughing about. And then I just prove everyone wrong when it comes to football and I do what I do best. Then they noticed me and realised that I don’t really speak that much but inside me I really wanted to say as much I could.
So, I just worked hard on little things, I just did what mum taught me, just learn slow. So, I tried..I did year 10 to year 12, then I moved to Newcastle. I chose heaps of people to hang out with, the right people to hang out with because I heard … you know back then when you watched the movies, you think there’s a lot of bad people out there in Australia. I did little things right and follow the right kind of people who would help you out. Sometimes when you are missing home, you need those people and they are there all the time.
Kangaroos
That was the best experience ever. First of all, I never thought I would play rugby league because I was always a rugby union fan in Fiji. But ever since I learnt how to play rugby league and got to the State of Origin (I didn’t even know that State of Origin was massive), and to put on the green and gold jersey in 2011 was massive for me. It was probably my best experience playing alongside great players and legends of the game, doing little things and I got heaps of experience from there. Then came to the RLWC, I put my hand up for Fiji and I wanted to share my experience to the younger players and now I am doing it again.
Fears
I fear God. My upbringing was strong and I was taught that the only to be scared of was the Almighty God. Now that I have three kids, my greatest fear now is probably when they grow up, the persons they will become and when I leave them. I got a 6-year-old, 3-year-old and a 2-year-old. My greatest fear is leading them the wrong way, I want them to grow up and be just them and not from who I was and to follow my footsteps.
I fear them choosing my footsteps and going the wrong way. They know that their dad plays football and their dad is famous.
But I won’t play football forever. I want them to grow up and be themselves and make me a proud dad.
I am always mucking around with my two elder ones and I tell them you will be a doctor and you will be a lawyer. And they go, “Nah, nah we want to play football.” Teach them young, who knows they may change in a couple of years.
No regrets
I have no regrets. I love spending time with my family. I live life to the fullest. I pray every day to wake up the next and enjoy the day. And don’t even worry about tomorrow because you don’t know if you will wake up the next day.
Fiji in the final
I believe this team will go straight to the final, that’s for sure. I believe the group that we have now is quite good. I saw that from the first day we trained, it’s quite different from 2008 and 2013. I think we just stepped up- experience wise, the maturity of the team and we’ve got all experienced players. And the training is so much different 2008. With our faith and our devotion, with God everything is possible.
