The ‘must be stamped out’ steps Connacht are taking with Ireland midfielder Bundee Aki back in the mix following his latest ref ban
Ireland centre Bundee Aki is back in the mix after suspension with a warning from Connacht assistant John Muldoon, inset
Connacht have vowed that there will be no more verbal abuse of referees after Bundee Aki became their second Ireland international player to be suspended in just over a year.
It was December 2024 when Mack Hansen got into trouble for his scathing post-game comments about the since-retired referee Chris Busby following the club’s United Rugby Championship loss at Irish rivals Leinster.
Hansen claimed it was “bulls***” the way that Connacht were treated by the officials and added: “I feel it’s got to be spoken about because it’s just getting to the point where it’s starting to really piss us off because we just feel we’re getting played out of games and we never ever get any calls.”
The outburst resulted in a three-game ban for the winger, but that suspension had expired by the time the 2025 Six Nations began and Hansen was named on the Ireland wing for their opening match versus England.
“Frustration”
Aki, though, was forced to miss all three of Ireland’s recent February matches in the 2026 Six Nations following his four-match ban after he “engaged with the match official team (led by referee Eoghan Cross) after the game on several occasions” following Connacht’s URC loss to Leinster last month in Galway.
Having also sat out his province’s win at Zebre before Ireland’s Six Nations began away to France and was followed by matches against Italy and England, Aki is now free to play again and could potentially line up this Saturday versus league leaders Glasgow ahead of Ireland’s round four game at home to Wales on March 6.
Whether or not Aki lines up against the Warriors at Dexcom Stadium, Connacht are adamant that only their team captain on the day will engage with referee Ben Breakspear, the inexperienced Welsh official with just 16th matches at URC level.
John Muldoon was Connacht skipper when they won the 2016 PRO12 title and is now working as an assistant coach under Stuart Lancaster. He admitted at a media briefing that discipline and not talking out of turn was something that must be addressed following the Aki controversy.
“It is massively. We have got to be conscious that it has been mentioned on numerous occasions that only one person should speak to the referee,” he said.
“Frustration sometimes leads to that, and look, some players play with their heart on their sleeve. The occasion clearly got to the player at the time, and look, it’s not right to question referees and get stuck into them.
“It’s something that we’re seeing more and more of, and it probably needs to be stamped out completely and we understand that.
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“It’s not a good enough excuse to say frustration was the cause of it, but that is the reality of it. From our point of view, we have tried to deal with it in-house and make sure that it is only the captain that is speaking.
“We want to make sure, from our point of view as a club and as an organisation, that this is not something that we are going to tolerate from our players and that we have got to make sure that referees are respected massively.
“That’s the key thing for us. Yes, people are human, both referees and players; they make mistakes, but we can’t have situations like this going forward again.”
The 35-year-old Aki, who reportedly trained with the Irish squad in Dublin last week before they flew to London and beat England 42-21, was previously suspended for his comments towards referee Ian Davies in 2017 – ironically during another match against Leinster.
