Bundy Aki has revealed that he missed the birth of his fifth child to play in the first Test against Australia for the UK and Ireland Lions.
Aki played 23 minutes in place in the Suncorp Stadium on July 19, just hours after his wife Kayla gave birth to Ain in his hometown of New Zealand.
And the 35-year-old Ireland Centre saw the delivery of healthy babies as a sign of a 27-19 victory for the Lions, which set them on the path to victory in the series.
“I want to enjoy a break, family time. I haven’t seen my family for eight weeks. I have a newborn child I haven’t seen yet,” Aki said.
“Trust in my wife – she is a strong woman, a strong woman. I have to tell her that. If you knew what happened, it’s an interesting story in itself.
“It was a good day. I was in the hotel. I knew we were late. Misus called me and she said, “The water is not broken, but I’m going to the hospital, I feel contraction.” I go, “Yeah, fair enough.”
“She goes to the hospital and we are getting ready to meet up with the team before the game, so she calls me and says she’s on her way to the hospital.
“Five minutes later, she sent me a picture and her water broke. I said, ‘It’s cool, okay, are you there soon?” This is 30 or 40 minutes from the hospital, so I said, ‘You’re fine, mommy’re there.’
“Ten minutes later she called me. I saw the baby on a video call and she had it in the car on her way to the hospital.
“I knew it was a good juju, I knew it was a good juju so we knew we had a good day.”
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The Lions won the series in Melbourne the following weekend by bringing out the first 29-26 winners of AKI’s two consecutive starts, which was also part of the 2021 expedition to South Africa.
“Only so many people can say they’ve been on two tours or have won the series,” he said.
“To be honest, I can’t say anything high enough for this bunch of boys, teams and staff. It was one of the most enjoyable tours I’ve ever been to. It’s a very good thing.
“The Lions are every four years so we came to Australia and became the first team in a row to win a series against Australia. That’s there.”