{"id":316228,"date":"2025-08-04T04:04:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/316228\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T04:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T04:04:12","slug":"bundee-aki-reveals-wife-gave-birth-in-a-car-hours-before-he-played-for-lions-in-first-test-against-australia-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/316228\/","title":{"rendered":"Bundee Aki reveals wife gave birth in a car hours before he played for Lions in first Test against Australia \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bundee Aki<\/a> has revealed his wife Kayla gave birth to their fifth child on the day of the Lions<\/a>\u2019 first Test in Brisbane on July 11th, before the Ireland<\/a> centre came on as a replacement in the tourists\u2019 27-19 victory.<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of rain-sodden series finale in Sydney, the 35-year-old was asked if returning to Australia in two years\u2019 time for the 2027 World Cup was a goal, at which point he divulged he had more pressing matters on his mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see, we\u2019ll see. I want to enjoy my break, my family time. I haven\u2019t seen my family for eight weeks. I have a newborn child who I haven\u2019t met yet,\u201d he told stunned reporters in the mixed zone of the Accor Stadium after the Wallabies\u2019 22-12 win on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYep, a girl,\u201d he confirmed happily. \u201cShe was born when we were playing in Brisbane, so I haven\u2019t met her. Her name is \u00c1ine, so I\u2019m looking forward to going and meeting my newborn child and we\u2019ll go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The story has echoes of a bygone era, when Lions squads travelled to the southern hemisphere by boat for marathon tours of several months and missing the birth of a child was not uncommon for players.<\/p>\n

\u201cCredit to my wife. She\u2019s a powerful woman, a strong woman. I have to say it to her. If you only knew the story of what happened, it\u2019s a funny story in itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a good day,\u201d he began, hesitantly, before revealing some of the details as Kayla communicated to him from New Zealand, where she and the rest of the Aki family were on the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in the hotel. I knew we were overdue. The missus calls me and she\u2019s like: \u2018Water hasn\u2019t broke but I\u2019m going to the hospital, I\u2019m feeling contractions.\u2019 I go: \u2018Yeah, fair enough.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"BundeeBundee Aki celebrates with team-mates in the dressingroom after the Lions’ second Test victory over the Wallabies at Melbourne Cricket Ground. Photograph: Dan Sheridan\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cShe goes to the hospital, we\u2019re getting ready for the team meeting prematch, and then she calls me and says she\u2019s on the way to the hospital. So I said: \u2018Fine, be safe.\u2019 Five minutes later, she sends a photo, her water broke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like: \u2018Cool, OK, are you almost there?\u2019 This is like 30 or 40 minutes away from the hospital. So I said: \u2018You\u2019ll be all right, Mum is there.\u2019 Ten minutes later, she video calls me and I was like: \u2018Shit, what\u2019s going on?\u2019 I saw a baby on the video call, so she had it in the car on the way to the hospital. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re both strong and healthy, so happy days,\u201d he added, grinning broadly throughout.<\/p>\n

As for refocusing on his other task at hand, namely that first Test at Suncorp Stadium, Aki maintained: \u201cI knew it was good Juju, so I knew we were going to have a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

It certainly constitutes one of the most memorable days of his life.<\/p>\n

They chose a good Irish name too. \u201cAll my kids\u2019 (names) start with A, so my wife loved the name \u00c1ine. That\u2019s five As in the family,\u201d he said, their newest arrival joining older siblings Armani-Jad, Adrianna, Andronicus and Ailbhe.<\/p>\n

The birth put the matter of a rugby match into perspective, particularly one as daft and farcical as the weather-interrupted third Test.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no excuse,\u201d admitted Aki, of an error-strewn Lions performance which dipped from previous standards. \u201cWe were just behind the eight-ball. I wasn\u2019t great myself. Today was a poor game, but you have those days, you\u2019ve just got to live with it. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll take the positive out of it. We won the series and that\u2019s all we came here for. We\u2019d have loved a clean sweep but it didn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BundeeBundee Aki (centre) with Lions, Ireland and Connacht team-mates Finlay Bealham (left) and Mack Hansen (right) after the third Test in Sydney. Photograph: James Crombie\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Aki was one of the players, along with Tadhg Furlong<\/a>, who could be seen lounging on bean bags during the storm-induced stoppage, which lasted 37 minutes before play resumed. He admitted they were caught a little off-guard when given notice that the game would be resuming in 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said 45 minutes, they would let us know. We were all just sort of relaxed and then we got told, \u2018Oh we\u2019ve got 10 minutes before we get out\u2019. Oh shit! Everyone had to get on their feet and start moving again.\u201d<\/p>\n

No doubt helped by the prospect of soon seeing his family and newborn daughter, Aki could also frame Saturday\u2019s defeat in the context of completing his second Lions tour and a series win. <\/p>\n

\u201cOnly so many people can say they\u2019ve been on two tours or have won a series. Honestly, I can\u2019t say anything high enough of this bunch of boys, the team, the staff. It\u2019s been one of the most enjoyable tours I\u2019ve ever been on. It\u2019s so good. We\u2019re going to enjoy tonight as a group of players together, and we\u2019ll see them again in the new year,\u201d he said, in reference to meeting as opposing players in the Six Nations<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Aki has been a serial winner throughout his career, be it the Ranfury Shield with Counties Manakau, the Super Rugby title with the Chiefs, the Pro12 with Connacht<\/a>, or three Six Nations titles, including two Grand Slams, and a series win in New Zealand with Ireland, and now adds a series win with the Lions.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, there\u2019s quite a few up there; Six Nations at home, Grand Slam, the New Zealand tour. The Lions is every four years, coming to Australia, being the first team to go back-to-back to win the series against Australia, it\u2019s up there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bundee Aki has revealed his wife Kayla gave birth to their fifth child on the day of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316229,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[72669,30722,4207,4210,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-316228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-bundee-aki","9":"tag-connacht-rugby","10":"tag-ireland-rugby","11":"tag-lions-tour","12":"tag-rugby","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114968517972753094","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}