Lions star Bundee Aki reveals he missed arrival of his daughter during Australia tour after wife gave birth in a CAR
YOU'RE KIDDING Lions star Bundee Aki reveals he missed arrival of his daughter during Australia tour after wife gave birth in a CAR
BUNDEE AKI has revealed he became a dad again during the Lions' series win in Australia — with his wife giving birth in a car.
The Irish centre held his hands up on his shocker in Sydney on Saturday in a 22-12 defeat, which saw the tourists miss the chance of a Wallaby whitewash.
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Bundee Aki's wife has given birth to a daughter
Credit: Instagram
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Aki now has five children
Credit: Instagram
After the Lions failed to clinch a series clean sweep, Aki then announced he had become a father for the fifth time two weeks ago.
The 35-year-old has yet to meet new daughter Aine, who was born in the build-up to the opening Test win in Brisbane.
Wife Kayla was in New Zealand with family when she got in touch to say she was ready to give birth before he helped the Lions to a 27-19 triumph.
Aki recalled: 'Credit to my wife. She's a powerful woman. I was in the hotel in Brisbane and I knew we were overdue.
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'The missus calls me and she's like, 'My waters haven't broken but I'm going to the hospital, I'm feeling contractions'.
'Five minutes later, her waters broke. I was like, 'Are you almost there?' This is like 40 minutes away from the hospital, so I said, 'You'll be all right, Mum is there'.
'Ten minutes later, she video calls me and I was like, 'S**t, what's going on?' I saw a baby on the video call, so she had it in the car.
'They're both healthy. I knew it was good juju and we were going to have a good day.'
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All of Aki's kids have first names starting with the letter A — Armani-Jane, Adrianna, Andronicus, Ailbhe and now, Aine.
But their old man admitted he put in nothing close to an A-star performance in Sydney as the Lions were mauled in a monsoon.
The game was suspended after half-time for 38 minutes due to lightning, with the Aussies 8-0 up through Dylan Pietsch's try and a penalty.
Finn Russell was spotted in the dressing room flicking through his phone and Aki had his feet up on a bean bag before play resumed.
But the Wallabies struck twice after the delay to get the victory.
Aki had his worst game in an international shirt but fronted up.
He said: 'I wasn't great. It was a poor game but you have those days and you have to live with it.
'We won the series and that's all we came for.
'Now, I want to enjoy my break. I haven't seen my family for eight weeks. I have a newborn child I haven't met yet.'
Australia got it over the line thanks to a turbo-charged display from lock Will Skelton, who was on the wind-up all match, and second-half tries from Max Jorgensen and Tate McDermott.
Jac Morgan and Will Stuart crossed to give the Lions some consolation — but Skelton had shown the Aussies the way.
Wallabies scrum-half Nic White said: 'For once, someone stood up to them.'
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