Ireland star Bundee backed by family tree

The perils of having a large extended family are becoming all too apparent to Bundee Aki as he tries to wrangle enough tickets for his Australia-based kinfolk to watch Ireland take on the Wallabies over the next three weeks.

The New Zealand-born Connacht centre has relatives all over Australia, including the three Test venues on Ireland’s summer tour in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney and the 28-year-old says it is a major challenge to get them all a seat for this eagerly-awaited series, which starts on Saturday at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium.

He needs 15 for Brisbane this weekend, 25 for Melbourne the following Saturday, where his mother’s relatives live “and Sydney, all my dad’s family, which is going to be a lot but I don’t know what the numbers are”.