PAT LAM HAILED the influence of Bundee Aki after the brilliant outside centre delivered a man-of-the-match performance in Connacht’s 35-14 win over Munster at the Sportsground.
Aki’s outstanding showing was the latest in a long, long line of impressive displays for the western province since he joined in 2014.
The New Zealand native of Samoan descent was in stunning form as Connacht scored four tries against Munster, hammering through the visitors’ defence, smashing ball carriers in the tackle and bringing huge energy to the Galway crowd.
A knee injury looked to have ended his game in the second half, but the 26-year-old battled on, making a huge linebreak only minutes after getting back to his feet. Aki did eventually limp off to a standing ovation from an adoring Connacht support.
He’s a Connacht man,” said Lam post-match in Galway. “You can truly say that boy is a Connacht man. He’s embraced this whole area, he’s embraced the province. Pacific Islanders, everything is around family and extended family, and it doesn’t need to be blood.
“It needs to be the people you care about and Bundee always talks about his brothers here. You see that side, but I see him pushing guys really hard. He gets in their faces at training, he’s physical, he wants high standards. He drives that as well.
“He’s a big leader off the field. He can enjoy himself a lot too, socially, but certainly he’s got a lot of respect for these guys. He always pumps his chest because he loves this place.”
The bonus-point victory means Connacht’s automatic qualification into next season’s Champions Cup has been confirmed, and Lam underlined how big a moment this evening was for the province.
“I’m extremely proud,” said Lam. “I said the big goal was to get Champions Cup and it’s just such a massive, massive achievement for Connacht to get there. That’s ticked off now and last week I said one game, we’ve done that.
There’s a few sore bodies, we have to regroup, and hopefully a few more guys to come back. Two weeks to prepare for Treviso and we’ll give the boys a few days off now. The challenge is to go to Treviso, where everyone expects us to win, and show we’re real contenders by the way we play.
“If we do that, we guarantee ourselves a semi-final and then we come back here and I’m imaging that’s going to be massive [against Glasgow]. We turned away another 1,000 people at least because from Monday onwards everyone’s been contacting me looking for tickets.
“I normally have plenty to give, but I didn’t have any this time. It’s a wonderful day for Connacht rugby. We’ll enjoy it now but we’ll get back to work then and get ready.”
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