{"id":270412,"date":"2026-01-29T16:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/270412\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:33:10","slug":"bundee-aki-will-be-considered-for-ireland-after-suspension-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/270412\/","title":{"rendered":"Bundee Aki will be considered for Ireland after suspension \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ireland<\/a> attack coach Andrew Goodman has indicated Bundee Aki<\/a> will be considered for the last two Six Nations<\/a> games at home to Wales and Scotland, at which point his four-game suspension for misconduct<\/a> after Connacht<\/a>\u2019s loss to Leinster<\/a> last weekend will be served.<\/p>\n

The IRFU weighed in on the issue before the URC<\/a>\u2019s Independent Committee convened on Wednesday, stating the union \u201cdoes not tolerate any form of disrespect shown towards match officials\u201d, adding they would conduct an internal review on the matter. <\/p>\n

Aki was handed a six-week suspension, with two weeks suspended for two years, for engaging with match officials \u201con several occasions in a manner which breached the Disciplinary Rules\u201d after the Leinster defeat.<\/p>\n

But on Wednesday, the Ireland management appeared to be adopting a more conciliatory tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t give you too much detail on the actual incident,\u201d said Goodman, noting the IRFU and URC\u2019s involvement. \u201cBut first of all I\u2019d say that we know respect is a massive part of the game we play, and referees are obviously a big part of that as well, so we take that very seriously. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing is that we\u2019ve got huge support for Bundee. I\u2019ve worked with him for the last couple of years, but have known him a lot longer than that. I know he\u2019s a great character and he\u2019s made a mistake and we\u2019re going to help him work through it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Should Irish players have been wrapped in cotton wool ahead of the Six Nations?<\/p>\n

Speaking from Ireland\u2019s pre-Six Nations training camp in Portugal, Godman confirmed Aki would be considered for selection when his suspension is completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, a player of Bundee\u2019s calibre that\u2019s done great things in the Irish jersey before will definitely be considered. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut for now we\u2019re working with the guys that we\u2019ve got. When you look at a Jude Posthlewaite coming into the camp for the first time and the excitement that he\u2019s shown over these first couple of days, we\u2019ve got Tom Farrell, obviously who made his debut in November and has been consistently good for Munster again, Ringer (Garry Ringrose), and then Stu (Stuart McCloskey), who in November was one of our standout players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really ready to go and we\u2019re working with them and looking forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Leinster'sLeinster’s Garry Ringrose is one of Andy Farrell’s options at centre for next Thursday’s Six Nations opener against France. Photograph: Grace Halton\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Aki\u2019s absence is compounded by Hugo Keenan sustaining a fractured thumb in training on Wednesday, ruling him out of next week\u2019s tournament opener against France in Paris.<\/p>\n

Also missing out are looseheads Andrew Porter, Paddy McCarthy and Jack Boyle, and Tadhg Furlong appears to be in a race against time to be fit for next Thursday. <\/p>\n

Furlong was the only absentee for Wednesday\u2019s training session at The Campus in Quinta do Lago, where all the other players who had been nursing knocks took part in full. \u201c(Furlong) was doing some rehab and he\u2019s going through his process and he\u2019ll be assessed,\u201d said Goodman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being really cautious with him now so we can give him the best chance next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goodman added it was not a similar issue to the injury which dogged Furlong last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been pretty robust, training well with Leinster and had a good plan around his trainings and different little bits like that. I think it was the other side (to last season\u2019s injury) actually, so we\u2019ll make sure we get it right and hopefully that won\u2019t happen, recurring injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keenan, meanwhile, has not yet been ruled out of the entire Six Nations. \u201cHe\u2019s going home to see the surgeon now. We\u2019re waiting for an opinion from him,\u201d Goodman added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got still got great options (at fullback) and they\u2019ve been competing out at training the last few days. When you look at Jamie Osborne, who was there for a lot of November, he\u2019s back in contention; Jack (Crowley) has obviously played there for us in bits; Ciar\u00e1n Frawley\u2019s been playing there for Leinster; Jacob Stockdale\u2019s been playing there for Ulster.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019ve got plenty of exciting options that we can have a look at back at 15.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ireland attack coach Andrew Goodman has indicated Bundee Aki will be considered for the last two Six Nations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,1449,43,15551],"class_list":["post-270412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-news","tag-six-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}