Ex-Ireland stars Tommy Bowe and Donncha O’Callaghan have called on the Connacht management to “put their hands up” after Bundee Aki was visibly “p***** off” during the URC defeat to Leinster.

Aki was recently famously dropped from the Ireland squad ahead of the upcoming Six Nations following comments directed at the match officials, which resulted in a four-match ban, leaving him ineligible for the opening three rounds of the competition.

Speaking on The Offload podcast, O’Callaghan has claimed that Aki wasn’t completely to blame for his actions, suggesting that head coach Stuart Lancaster and those around him also need to take accountability.

What caused Bundee Aki’s suspension?

It’s hard to work out quite where it went wrong for the experienced Aki during the game, but the duo believe that his exclusion from the starting XV had a major impact on his mental state.

“The biggest game of the year, a historical moment in Connacht’s history. I’m not trying to take away the blame from Bundee. He’s wrong for what he did, but if you put a pitbull on the lead for that long, man,” said O’Callaghan.

“Like, come on, you could see it. He wanted to go out there and leave it all on the pitch. I honestly do [think] management needs to put their hands up a bit as well.”

Bowe agreed, citing a return to the Irish squad as possible motivation for his heightened aggression that day.

“You can sense the frustration in him,” said the former winger. 

“The way he came onto the pitch, you could tell he was p***** off with it and wanted to make a mark, and obviously he overstepped the border on that.

“He wants to get himself back into the Irish team, and being on the bench in such a big game is not the way to go.”

“Ten and two, stay clean”

O’Callaghan suggested that if he had a calming presence around him, things could have been different.

Recalling a time in his own early professional days when he and David Humphreys were used as late substitutes, the pumped-up youngster was told by the older fly-half: ‘Stop, go away from me. All we can do in this short window of time is make a f*** up.

‘The game isn’t for the winning here; that’s been cast by them, picking the team this way. So you go on, give away about six penalties, and we’ll never see you again.’

“And I wonder, did Bundee need a little bit of that chat? Just an arm around him, going, ‘listen, fella, I know you’re frustrated. I know today it hasn’t gone the way you’d like it, but just go out here now, ten and two, stay clean.’”

Summing the sad situation up, Bowe concluded: “It’s a fine line between the competitiveness that makes him such an unbelievable servant, an unbelievable player on the pitch, but sometimes it can boil over.”

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