Mack Hansen reckons Bundee Aki would garner more attention walking down Shop Street in Galway than Brad Pitt. “It’s crazy,” notes Hansen of his Connacht and Ireland team-mate. “People just love him down here, but I can see why.”
This season marks a decade of Aki at Connacht. “When I first arrived at The Sportsground,” Aki once reflected, “I thought ‘Oh… a dog track’.” The Auckland native pitched up at a side led by the infectiously ambitious Pat Lam, but who had finished 10th from 12 in the previous season. When Lam took the job in 2013, he spoke about wanting Connacht to be the best provincial side within five years. Many scoffed. As it turned out, the underdog Westerners won a league title within three.
Aki made his Connacht debut in October 2014, having a delayed introduction after helping Chiefs to the Super Rugby quarter-finals. He would play 57 times in his first three seasons before another team in green co-opted his services for Test duty. Last season was the first time in five years his Connacht appearances (11) passed double figures. Still, he is an inspiration to those around him and is now team-mate to those who once idolised him from the stands.
One of those former fans is the talented, versatile Cathal Forde. Last season was a true breakthrough campaign culminating in a players’ player of the year award, even if the player credits his mother for sending the voting link to ‘every WhatsApp group she’s in’. The 23-year-old from Galway is heading into the new season well placed to strike up a centre partnership with Aki.
“When I first came into the academy, that was when Bundee was picked for the Lions,” Forde recalls. “To be playing alongside him, two years later, was just unbelievable. But you do get used to it pretty quickly. You first come in and it hits you that you are playing with these big dogs. As soon as you get to know them, you realise they’re human beings, just like the rest of us.”
Eight years ago, Forde was one of those supporters heading to The Sportsground as Aki inspired the province all through their incredible, league-winning campaign. “I remember watching that final in [current Connacht hooker] Eoin De Buitléar’s house in Carraroe. It was so cool. I’d have been supporting Connacht since I was about six or seven. It was just class to see.”
You have Bundee, who is a distinguished player but he’s the most easy-going chap you’re ever going to meet. You can ask him anything – about his game, or anything you feel you can be doing better – and he’ll always give you an honest answer.
Forde’s first game in with the Connacht supporters was a memorable 9-8 win over Harlequins at The Sportsground in 2012. “That was a time,” he recalls, “when all us kids could still run out on the pitch at the end, and bother all the players, looking for pictures and autographs. I was one of them.
“My early heroes were lads like Tiernan O’Halloran, Gavin Duffy and Dan Parks. With the Ireland team, it was Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Ronan O’Gara. My gran lives up in Dublin, so we often stayed with her and a few of my cousins when we’d go up to November internationals or Six Nations games. I was up in the stands with my brother for that 2013 game against the All Blacks when we were winning until they got that late try.”
Forde’s father played club rugby in Limerick, Dublin and Mayo before settling in Galway and lining out for Corinthians. He is the youngest of four siblings, with an older sister and two older brothers. Invaluable for advice and support now, they were the ones he saw making their first steps in sport and could barely wait to follow. He was at Corinthians from Under-9s and played with the junior side at his secondary school, Coláiste Iognáid. It was that school year after Connacht’s league triumph that rugby as an attainable dream started to take hold.
Much of transition year, before studies got too serious, was spent in the local park in Knocknacarra, practicing kicks, honing his craft and running himself ragged. That grind paid off as he reached a Connacht Senior Schools Cup final with ‘The Jes’ then pushed on with Corinthians senior team, while impressing with Ireland U20s. “I was always chasing that next little win. The next milestone.”
“On my first year with the academy,” he adds, “if a couple of players were injured, you’d sub in with the seniors. Every chance you did get was unreal. You’d get the chance to train with lads like Bundee, Tom Daly, Tom Farrell – these guys I had been watching and following.
“You have Bundee, who is a distinguished player here, with Ireland and a British and Irish Lion. But he’s the most easy-going chap you’re ever going to meet. You can ask him anything – about his game, or anything you feel you can be doing better – and he’ll always give you an honest answer. He’s smart and he knows what he’s talking about. He’s a good lad to have around, as is Mack (Hansen) and Finlay (Bealham). They add a bit of character to the place. They’re dead-on.”
Having Bundee, Jack Carty and Dave Heffernan is so important. They’re good for driving standards and giving the younger lads confidence. You can see this new identity forming.
Forde, who had grown up following O’Gara and Parks closely, was a fly-half all the way through his school career, and with the Connacht underage sides. When he stepped up to play a few ‘A’ games with Connacht Eagles a new path emerged.
“It wasn’t until Ireland U20s I got moved to 12 and played a bit more there. I was able to carry the ball a bit more. At the time, I was big enough for a 10 and was happy enough to carry, but also be that second playmaker and use my defence more.”
There had been a couple of Eagles appearances at inside centre, with Conor Fitzgerald as starting fly-half. Clearly, he caught the eye of former Ireland U20s coach Richie Murphy, because it was to midfield Murphy pushed him. Forde made four starts in the 12 jersey in his sole U20 Six Nations campaign, scoring a try in an emphatic away win over Wales. His full debut came at 10, in early 2022, against Glasgow.
“I had Covid the previous week, and was not cleared to return until the Wednesday of the game. One of the other lads then caught Covid, so I got a call from (former coach) Andy Friend the day before, when I was still in bed. Made it in Wednesday, trained Thursday, captain’s run Friday and straight in for my full debut on the Saturday.
“It was a tough enough game, but Sammy Arnold, Jarrad Butler and Dave Heffernan were so good to help me settle. I was shaking a good bit before it, but once that first whistle went, I was fine.”
All of Forde’s starts since have been at inside or outside centre. Eleven senior appearances followed in 2022-23 before he established himself in the first team, lining out 18 times last season.
Forde had to wait until April 2023 to share senior minutes with Aki, as Connacht lost a Challenge Cup knock-out to Benetton. They played in seven matches together last season, and partnered up against Bordeaux-Begles and in a rousing home win over Munster.
In the latter half of the season, Pete Wilkins used Forde as bench cover, and he came on, in various games, at 10, 12, 13 and 15. That versatility, as we saw with Ciaran Frawley in South Africa this summer, should serve him well in the coming seasons. Simon Easterby is leading an Emerging Ireland tour to South Africa early in the new season, and Forde is one of many vying for a place on the plane.
“I still train a fair bit at 10 but 12 is my preferred position,” he says. “Any opportunity to pull on an Irish jersey is one to chase. Being able to slot in at 10 benefitted me last year, and being able to take up the kicking duties. That’s still important to me, and it’ll only benefit my game as a centre.
We didn’t finish last season the way we wanted, and it has us really looking forward to this one, to see how we go.
“It would be a big goal of mine to get capped (for Ireland) but the main one is doing well for my club and getting as much game time, and as many wins, as I can. If we can do that, and push for silverware, good things will happen.”
Wilkins clearly likes what he sees in Forde and the next generation of centres pushing through at Connacht. Peter Robb and Sam Arnold moved on in recent seasons but this summer, Tom Daly and Tom Farrell followed. Forde, Shane Jennings, David Hawkshaw and Ireland U20s prosect Hugh Gavin will be asked to carry much of the load.
“There is a good group of young lads and I’m looking forward to the opportunity,” Forde says. “There is always that competition but we are trying to get the best out of each other. We didn’t finish last season the way we wanted, and it has us really looking forward to this one, to see how we go.”
He adds: “It’s a young team, but having the likes of Bundee, Jack Carty and Dave Heffernan is so important. They’re good for driving standards and giving the younger lads confidence to do it themselves. They’re encouraging us to step it up, and take on leadership roles. You can see this new identity forming.”
O’Halloran retiring at the end of last season left Connacht’s 2016 league-winning crew at five – Aki, Bealham, Carty, Heffernan and Caolin Blade.
When Aki arrived, a decade ago, he bought into the Lam quest many dismissed as folly. An elder statesman now, it is Aki trying to instil those same fantastical beliefs in the newcomers. His door is always open, and he still has more sway out West than Brad Pitt.
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