Wayne Bennett rubbishes suggestions Blues should drop Akuila Uate

WAYNE Bennett claims under-fire Blues winger Akuila Uate is wrongly being crucified for one error of judgment in Origin II.

WAYNE Bennett says he would target under-fire Blues winger Akuila Uate in the Origin decider if he was Queensland coach, but claims the Knights flyer is wrongly being crucified for one error of judgment in Origin II.

The Newcastle coach yesterday rubbished suggestions Uate should be under any sort of pressure to retain his place for the series decider given his match-winning qualities.

"He is one of the most damaging runners of the football in the game," Bennett said. "No one wants to tackle him. Queensland don't want to tackle him.

"You are not going to leave him out of your team."

Critics of the Knights winger have been calling for his head after he allowed a Cooper Cronk bomb to bounce near his own line on the stroke of half-time which led to a Maroons try to Ben Hannant.

NRL Talkback: Should NSW stick with Akuila Uate? Have your say with Andrew Webster from 12:30pm

He also failed to contest a high ball which Maroons winger Darius Boyd tapped back for Greg Inglis to score.

The criticism of Uate came after the Maroons scored two tries down his wing in Origin I.

Asked would he instruct the Maroons to target Uate at Suncorp Stadium if he was Queensland coach, Bennett said: "Of course you would, but wingers get targeted anyway. It's the nature of the game.

"You get through your sets and on the fifth tackle if you are in field position, it's logical you are going to kick it. And generally these days, it's to the wingers.

"Aku hasn't got a problem under the high ball. He's caught that many high balls for the Knights this year. He'd be up around the 40 or 50 mark I'm sure and he hasn't given up one try. Their (wingers') job is difficult. They've got one of the toughest jobs in the game.

"NSW targeted Wendell (Sailor) and Matt Sing in game two in 1998 when we were beaten and there were calls after that game for Wendell to be dropped," Bennett said. "They put a bomb up to him in the first five minutes of game three and he caught it and ran 65m. From the play-the-ball we scored. That's the danger with ball-runners like them."

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