Pat Lam gathered his Connacht team around him in the cramped home dressing room of The Sportsground.
Scanning the group, he exhaled before declaring, “Jeez, I’m not nervous at all.”
Munster were waiting for them on the pitch but they were not waiting when the whistle blew. 14-6 behind after 25 minutes but Connacht weren’t nervous at all.
They had a scrum that had Munster figured out, a pack as smooth as they were vicious around the park and a backline that new gaps would appear if they kept probing.
They also had Bundee Aki.
The Kiwi, of Pacific Island descent, was so irate with his performance in the away loss to Ulster, two weeks ago, that he took to social media to apologise. This one was on me – an unusual step in this day and age.
By far the worse performance from myself. Boys played out of there skins. #alwaysroomtoimprove #ontothenext
— Bundee Aki (@bundeeaki12) April 1, 2016
The ball was on Aki tonight, so was the pressure, so was Francis Salli whenever he caught a glimpse. And still, the centre called the ball on him.
He made two line breaks of 40+ metres and two handfuls more – a yard here, six there. His offload was instrumental in Niyi Adeolukon’s first try. There were a couple of loose passes but one gets the feeling that his teammates are not fully on his scale-thrumming wave-length yet.
Bundee Aki is man of the match. I we had been allowed vote, we would have voted for Bealham once and Bundee twice
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 16, 2016
Aki received lengthy treatment on two separate occasions but refused to come off until the bonus point had been secured and his side were 32-14 up.
Lam smiled when asked about the rousing reception Aki got as he left the pitch. He said:
“Bundee is a Connacht man. You can truly say he’s a Connacht man.
“He has truly embraced this area. He has embraced the people.
“With Pacific Islanders, everything is around the family and the extended family. It doesn’t need to be about blood; it just needs to be the people you care about.
“Bundee always talks about his brothers. You see that side but what I see is… he pushes some guys really hard. He gets in some people’s faces at training. He’s physical; he wants high standards. He drives that as well.
“He enjoys himself socially as well but, certainly, he has a lot of respect for these guys because he loves this place.”
He loves this place and Connacht love him.
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