Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Bundee: We are getting into groove
BUNDEE AKI feels Connacht’s 20-16 win over Munster on Friday evening is the perfect result to ignite their season.
The 27-year old celebrated his first call-up to the Ireland squad by delivering a typically robust display in the Connacht midfield as they fashioned a spirited win at the Sportsground.
It may have been only Connacht’s second victory of the Pro14 but it is their third success on the trot, having chalked up wins over Oyonnax and Worcester Warriors in the Challenge Cup.
Aki said: “It means a lot to the boys. A lot of people were writing us off from the beginning of the year.
“We started off slowly, the boys are picking it up and we are coming into our groove.”
The New Zealandborn star set up Connacht’s opening try for Tiernan O’Halloran as they battled back from 10-0 down to trail by just three at the break after Simon Zebo (inset) got the opener after just four minutes.
Aki’s centre partner Tom Farrell got the match-winning try for Connacht in the final quarter after Munster winger Andrew Coway was sent off for a high tackle on Jack Carty.
And Aki said the resilience shown by Connacht in the closing stages as Rassie Erasmus’s men came looking for a winner was really encouraging.
“Credit to Munster, they kept coming right to the 80th minute but the boys really played their hearts out.
“We had a big emphasis on our forwards this week, we knew Munster were very good in the maul, scrummaging and physically very strong.”
Aki is confident that Kieran
Keane’s men can now continue their good form next weekend when the Cheetahs come to the Sportsground — and he’s hoping that the benign weather for the Munster game will be replaced by more testing conditions for the South Africans.
“Hopefully, it won’t be as good next week and we will give them some Galway weather.
“We just got to regroup again. We made a lot of mistakes and we have got to focus on next week and get the Cheetahs.”