Not quite the same is it though?
Uate came to Australia as a teenager and was developed in Australia not poached as a ready built player.

"Aku was aged 16 when he left his home in the remote Fijian island of Lakeba to live with his father, David Uate, and stepmother Julie, at Woy Woy, on the Central Coast.

‘‘I wasn’t going really well at school because I always wanted to come home and go fishing and do things like that,’’ Aku says sheepishly. ‘‘So Dad brought me over here in 2003 to finish high school.’’

Aku attended Brisbane Water Secondary College, Woy Woy, where he became one of the foundation students in the school’s Rugby League Sports Academy.

‘‘It was just fun back then,’’ Aku recalls. ‘‘Mr [Matt] Marker and Mr [Mark] Cribb were teaching me rugby league basics like how to play the ball.’’

Rugby union had been the main football code played in Fiji, although Aku had always had an interest in rugby league and had closely followed the careers of Fijian rugby league stars Noa Nadruku and Lote Tuqiri on TV.

Aku soon followed the lead of his cousins and schoolmates and joined the Woy Woy Roosters under-17s team in the Central Coast rugby league premiership.

Roosters president Grant Pride says Aku made an immediate impression.
Aku proved a fast learner, too, and in 2005 was selected in the Australian Schoolboys squad alongside current Newcastle teammates Jarrod Mullen and Cory Paterson, as well as current NRL stars Darius Boyd (St George Illawarra), David Taylor (South Sydney) and Mitchell Pearce (Sydney Roosters).

Aku has fond memories of his first rugby league games at Woy Woy.

‘‘It was just fun,’’ he says. ‘‘All you did was run and score tries. You got more space than in rugby union. In union you’ve got to ruck and maul, but in league you get to keep the ball for five tackles and you kick it on the last. That’s the fun part about league.

‘‘And I didn’t really get touched back in those days because nobody could catch me,’’ he laughs.

Everything came easily to Aku on the football field. So there was no reason for him to ever doubt that he would make it in the NRL.

‘‘I thought it would be easy getting into the NRL,’’ he says, smiling at his naivety. ‘‘But it’s hard work.’’

As a teenager, Aku had trials with Wests Tigers, Manly and the Sydney Roosters.

‘‘My last trial was with Newcastle, and the only reason I picked Newcastle was because it was fairly close to Woy Woy and only maybe two hours on the train,’’ he says.

‘‘I then got a letter from Newcastle saying that I had made the train-on squad.’’

For the next two years, Aku had a crash course on the dedication needed to make it in the NRL. And he almost failed the test.

‘‘I was going to give up,’’ he confesses. ‘‘It was a bit hard for me.
More here
Link
www.theherald.com.au/news/local/ ... torypage=3

I guess since he lives in Oz and is a citizen of Australia its hard to tell him he can not play for the country he has PERMANENTLY moved to.

Not like a Grand Parent or 3 year rule like some of the current English squad.

Not quite the same is it though?
Uate came to Australia as a teenager and was developed in Australia not poached as a ready built player.

"Aku was aged 16 when he left his home in the remote Fijian island of Lakeba to live with his father, David Uate, and stepmother Julie, at Woy Woy, on the Central Coast.

‘‘I wasn’t going really well at school because I always wanted to come home and go fishing and do things like that,’’ Aku says sheepishly. ‘‘So Dad brought me over here in 2003 to finish high school.’’

Aku attended Brisbane Water Secondary College, Woy Woy, where he became one of the foundation students in the school’s Rugby League Sports Academy.

‘‘It was just fun back then,’’ Aku recalls. ‘‘Mr [Matt] Marker and Mr [Mark] Cribb were teaching me rugby league basics like how to play the ball.’’

Rugby union had been the main football code played in Fiji, although Aku had always had an interest in rugby league and had closely followed the careers of Fijian rugby league stars Noa Nadruku and Lote Tuqiri on TV.

Aku soon followed the lead of his cousins and schoolmates and joined the Woy Woy Roosters under-17s team in the Central Coast rugby league premiership.

Roosters president Grant Pride says Aku made an immediate impression.
Aku proved a fast learner, too, and in 2005 was selected in the Australian Schoolboys squad alongside current Newcastle teammates Jarrod Mullen and Cory Paterson, as well as current NRL stars Darius Boyd (St George Illawarra), David Taylor (South Sydney) and Mitchell Pearce (Sydney Roosters).

Aku has fond memories of his first rugby league games at Woy Woy.

‘‘It was just fun,’’ he says. ‘‘All you did was run and score tries. You got more space than in rugby union. In union you’ve got to ruck and maul, but in league you get to keep the ball for five tackles and you kick it on the last. That’s the fun part about league.

‘‘And I didn’t really get touched back in those days because nobody could catch me,’’ he laughs.

Everything came easily to Aku on the football field. So there was no reason for him to ever doubt that he would make it in the NRL.

‘‘I thought it would be easy getting into the NRL,’’ he says, smiling at his naivety. ‘‘But it’s hard work.’’

As a teenager, Aku had trials with Wests Tigers, Manly and the Sydney Roosters.

‘‘My last trial was with Newcastle, and the only reason I picked Newcastle was because it was fairly close to Woy Woy and only maybe two hours on the train,’’ he says.

‘‘I then got a letter from Newcastle saying that I had made the train-on squad.’’

For the next two years, Aku had a crash course on the dedication needed to make it in the NRL. And he almost failed the test.

‘‘I was going to give up,’’ he confesses. ‘‘It was a bit hard for me.
More here
Link
www.theherald.com.au/news/local/ ... torypage=3

I guess since he lives in Oz and is a citizen of Australia its hard to tell him he can not play for the country he has PERMANENTLY moved to.

Not like a Grand Parent or 3 year rule like some of the current English squad.