Bundee Aki reveals extraordinary sacrifice he made to play in first Lions Test

Bundee Aki has revealed he missed the birth of his fifth child to play in the British and Irish Lions’ first Test against Australia.

Aki completed 23 minutes as a replacement against the Wallabies at Suncorp Stadium on July 19 just hours after his wife Kayla had given birth to Aine in their native New Zealand.

And the 35-year-old Ireland centre saw the delivery of a healthy baby as an omen for the Lions’ resounding 27-19 victory that set them on the path to a series triumph.

“I want to enjoy my break, my family time. I haven’t seen my family for eight weeks. I have a newborn child who I haven’t met yet,” Aki said.

“Credit to my wife – she’s a powerful woman, a strong woman. I have to say it to her. If you only knew the story of what happened, it’s a funny story in itself.

“It was a good day. I was in the hotel. I knew we were overdue. The missus calls me and she’s like, ‘Water hasn’t broke but I’m going to the hospital, I’m feeling contractions.’ I go, ‘Yeah, fair enough’.

“She goes to the hospital, we’re getting ready for the team meeting pre-match and then she calls me and says she’s on the way to the hospital, so I said, ‘Fine, be safe.’

“Five minutes later she sends a photo, her water broke. I was like, ‘Cool, OK, are you almost there?’. This is like 30 or 40 minutes away from the hospital, so I said, ‘You’ll be all right, mum is there’.

“Ten minutes later she video calls me and I was like, ‘S***, what’s going on?’. I saw a baby on the video call, so she had it in the car on the way to the hospital. They’re both strong and healthy, so happy days!

“I knew it was good Juju, I knew it was good Juju, so I knew we were going to have a good day.”

The Lions clinched the series in Melbourne the following weekend by emerging 29-26 winners in what was the first of two successive starts for Aki, who 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 a series,” he said.

“Honestly, I can’t say anything high enough of this bunch of boys, the team, the staff. It’s been one of the most enjoyable tours I’ve ever been on. It’s so good.

“The Lions is every four years so coming to Australia, being the first team to go back-to-back to win the series against Australia – it’s up there.”