Ireland’s Bundee Aki in form of his life at Rugby World Cup

PARIS — Bundee Aki plays so well they wrote a song about him. Good kind of. But any connection to The Cranberries’ “Zombie”, played over the stadium sound system and sung by the traveling Irish band in France, is surely a good thing, right?

Replace “Zommmmbie” with “Bundeeeee” and you’ll still get the gist of it.

Twisted words aside, there is no doubt that Aki has been one of the most dominant figures at Rugby World Cup 2023. Ahead of this weekend’s quarter-finals, which see Ireland facing the All Blacks in one of the most anticipated matches in tournament history, with Aki leading the tournament in total runs [61]meters carried [567]and is tied for first in defenders beaten [23]; he is also tied for second in line breaks [9].

You’re talking about an individual stat line, huh?

And now he has the chance to sting the nation he had to abandon to pursue his Test Rugby dreams. Stuck behind Ma’a Nonu and Sonny Bill Williams, Aki packed his bags for Irish club Connacht in 2014. Three years later, once his residency period was over, he made his debut for Ireland. And six years later, he has become one of the most dangerous running backs in the world.

“Bundee is an absolute competitor,” outgoing Connacht coach Andy Friend told ESPN this week when asked what his first impressions of the hard-running center were when the Australian joined the club in 2018 . “He has the perfect build, I think, for an international center, low center of gravity, stocky, powerful, so he has that perfect build and he has the mentality that says he just wants to be a winner every time that he enters the field.

That was my first impression with him, I had seen him from afar, but then when you meet the guy you realize that’s his mentality; he’s a family man but everything is also a question to win and to be the best. best that he can be. Highly motivated, very determined in the way he goes about his business, enormous determination and belief in his own abilities and in his own abilities, this So these are the things that first struck me.

Gone, however, are the days when 12-year-old international players could simply be crash-ball cowboys.

One of the keys to Nonu’s longevity and World Cup-winning partnership with Conrad Smith was the work the inside center put into his game midway through his career; assists, offloads via contract, footwork on the line and kicking play have all been added to the All Black kitbag and are now necessities of the modern Test 12.

Friend says Aki underwent a similar transition during her time in Ireland.

“I think those intricacies developed and I think that’s where Ireland was really good for him,” Friend explained. “I think when he burst onto the Irish scene, in the 2015/16 season, when Connacht won the PRO12 as they did at the time, Bundee was the player of the tournament. wasn’t there, but I certainly watched a lot of the games, and he was just devastating with the football; he could carry things through, defensively, he was rock solid, and that was probably the style of play that you saw him play for the Chiefs.

“That’s the basis of his game, but I think what he’s added since then is the subtlety of skillful passing, his kicking game, he’s got a bit of footwork on the line now ; he always had a good defense.

“But I think the most important thing that happened in this tournament is his timing, his timing is just magnificent right now. His ability to not get ahead of himself, just to wait and use his acceleration and power at the right time, to run.” on a short ball, whether it’s an inside ball or an outside ball, it’s just exceptional. And that’s a compliment to the man, he has continued, even at 33, to develop his game and we see him on the world stage right now. »

That timing was demonstrated last week in Ireland’s first-half demolition of Scotland. Standing a little wider than usual, Aki took a pass 15 yards inside the left touchline, crossed the line and sent his partner to midfielder Gary Ringrose, who then fed Hugo Keenan for a clear run to the line and Ireland’s second try.

Earlier in the tournament, in the blockbuster clash against South Africa, Aki led in carries and meters made, and generally created all sorts of problems for the Springboks’ midfield.

But the last 12 months have not been marked by line breaks and tackle failures either. During the last United Rugby Championship season, Aki was suspended for eight weeks for a dangerous clean-up which made headlines across the rugby world.

Ugly? Yes. Premature? Even more so, especially when faced with Ireland’s quality of midfield options.

“From what I read, he was very frustrated with it, and it led to a long downtime,” Friend said of Aki’s reaction to the suspension. “I think the other thing that was on his mind is he just wants to play every game; you’ve got a World Cup coming up and you’ve got a guy called Robbie Henshaw and a guy called Gary Ringrose, who are very good footballers, and another guy called Stuart McCloskey who was doing pretty well too.

“I think Bundee’s frustration was more about missing the opportunity, to show what I could do, so it was a tricky question for him. And that certainly played on his mind, but he managed to find a way to gain his own self-awareness and his own self-control over what he should do.

“So we sent him to the Ireland camp to spend some time there, just to get away from Connacht, to train on his own, but to train in a different environment where he didn’t have the feeling like he wasn’t playing every week. He went out and did that; and again, the extras that Bundee does behind the scenes, he’s so driven and so determined and focused on wanting to put out his best version, that even though he wasn’t playing, he always tried to make every post a winner.”

Nearly 12 months after the Stormers’ Seabelo Senatla cleanup, which saw an agitated Aki remonstrate with the referee following his red card, the 33-year-old is ready to play the biggest game of his career.

As fate would have it, the All Blacks will meet on Saturday evening on the other side of the pitch at the Stade de France, and Aki will face the talented Jordie Barrett.

Had Aki stayed in New Zealand, he might have continued to press his Test claims and one day don the famous black jersey. But there’s no doubting what he looks like at home in green, putting on one hell of a match with Barrett this weekend.

“Two very different footballers, I think,” Friend said when asked to rate this game. “Bundee in the form of his life, I really enjoyed the way Ireland took on Bundee in that Scotland game. They didn’t touch him, he kept making those holes and the defenders had to sit on him because he played so well..