Bundellu Aki

Turns out Bundee Aki’s real name isn’t ‘Bundee’ but rather something entirely different that I’m not even going to attempt to spell.

The Connacht centre is of Samoan decent and has much more apt islander name on his birth cert, but ended up being called Bundellu because his mother was too nice to say no. In a wide-ranging interview with Graham Simmons of Sky Sports, Aki explains.

‘When my mum was giving birth to me, the doctor was called Bundellu, and asked if he could name me after him.’ 

‘My mum being a nice person, said yes. So I was named after him!’

‘So everybody at primary school called me Bundellu,’

‘It got to rugby, I had a coach, I forgot who his name was. But he couldn’t pronounce my name properly, it was too long for him. So he was like, naw I’m sick of Bundellu, I’m gonna call you Bundee. So Bundee stuck with me for a while.’

Have a watch of the clip below. Anyone fancy making an attempt at spelling his real name? We’re gonna go with Fua Leiofi.