AFTER THE EYEBROW-raising start from Ireland, Bundee Aki was central to Andy Farrell’s men swiftly bouncing back.
Johnny Sexton recognised the disjoint and hesitance in the Romania defence and carried to the line, drawing in a defender. Aki read his intentions alertly and burst onto Sexton’s pass in midfield space. A Romanian scragged his jersey but Aki had the wherewithal to offload to Garry Ringrose, who put Jamison Gibson-Park away.
It was an incisive involvement from Aki and he never let up from there in an outstanding performance in Ireland’s 82-8 win over the Oaks in the roasting sunshine of Bordeaux.
Aki had three explosive carries in the build-up to Ireland’s second try, an outstanding multi-phase passage finished by Hugo Keenan off James Ryan’s offload. As Ireland cut through in midfield, Aki was holding width out on the left to stretch the Romanian defence.
For the third Irish score, Aki made a lovely pass on the initial lineout strike, threatening the line with a possible carry but instead passing out the back to Sexton.
A brilliant step and offload from Aki out on the left after the first water break nearly helped to create a try for Keith Earls, but the Connacht man himself was the one to score Ireland’s fourth.
Having received another nice pass from Sexton, the Ireland inside centre realised that he had a chance to get on the outside of Romanian lock Stefan Iancu and there was no hesitation. Aki accelerated beyond Iancu’s reach, dummied a pass to Lowe on his left to ensure the the last Romanian defender sat off him, and simply burned past Iancu.
It was a mismatch but also a clear demonstration of how quick Aki is at the moment, how physically sharp he is. Indeed, Ireland’s collective fitness stood out in Bordeaux yesterday. Aki typified that.
He could have passed inside for Gibson-Park to score closer to the posts, but he was steaming along at such a speed that it was hard to hand the ball over. Sometimes it’s just best to finish when you know you definitely can, but Gibson-Park seemed disappointed and Aki seemed to acknowledge it was on. Sexton nailed the tough conversion anyway.
Ireland’s fifth try just before half time? You guessed it, Aki was involved again. This time he provided the scoring pass for Sexton, having reacted well to Gibson-Park’s quick tap, accepting an offload from the Ireland scrum-half, blasting through a tackle attempt, and drawing in the last defender. Aki made it look all too easy.
The 33-year-old had a big say in the second half as Ireland continued to make hay in attack. Soon after Rob Herring had bashed over from a five-metre tap penalty, the Ulster hooker thundered onto Tadhg Furlong’s clever tip-on pass. He found space but was tackled. Aki swung up onto his shoulder to take the offload.
Again, Aki might have passed inside to Gibson-Park but he carried instead and Ireland scored through Peter O’Mahony a few phases later.
Aki’s powerful carry out of his own 22 sparked the flowing attack that led to O’Mahony’s second try down the other end shortly after. Ireland were enjoying themselves and Aki soon had his second try as he surged through some weak tackle attempts with a direct carry on first phase of a lineout attack.
With the clock in the red, Aki still had a bit of juice left in the tank. Jack Crowley dinked a lovely little side-footed chip out of the Irish 22 and the Ireland centre once again showed great pace to go and gather it on the bounce. He was tackled almost immediately but Aki offloaded sharply off the deck for Garry Ringrose to break out, feeding Tadhg Beirne for the 12th and final Irish try.
Aki was Ireland’s top ball-carrier against the Romanians, racking up nearly 200 metres in his 20 carries. Eight defenders beaten and five linebreaks are superb stats even against opposition as poor as the Oaks.
The impression before this game was that Aki and Ringrose would be the preferred centre pairing for the big Springboks game in two weekends’ time. The performance certainly backed that up.
While Robbie Henshaw had the frustration of having to miss the opening game of the World Cup for the third tournament in a row due to a hamstring concern, Aki strengthened his grip on Ireland’s number 12 shirt.