Bundee Aki flies home from Australia as a series-winning Lion to greet the baby daughter he has never met. The Ireland centre finally revealed he had become a father for the fifth time when preparing for the first Test against the Wallabies in Brisbane two weeks ago.

Aki’s wife, Kayla, was in New Zealand with family when she went into labour just as the midfielder was going into a pre-game briefing ahead of the 27-19 win over the Wallabies.

Aki came off the bench that day and started the last two Tests but post Saturday’s 22-12 defeat in Sydney was itching to meet up with the new arrival, Aine.

The 35-year-old said: “Credit to my wife. She's a powerful woman and a strong woman.

"I was in the hotel in Brisbane and I knew we were overdue. The missus calls me and she's like, 'My waters haven’t broke but I'm going to the hospital, I'm feeling contractions.'

“I go, 'Yeah, fair enough.' She goes to the hospital, we're getting ready for the team meeting pre-match, and then she calls me and says she's on the way to the hospital, so I said, 'Fine, be safe.' Five minutes later, her waters broke. I was like, 'Cool, OK, are you almost there?' This is like 30 or 40 minutes away from the hospital, so I said, 'You'll be alright, Mum is there’.

“Ten minutes later, she video calls me and I was like, 'S***, what's going on?' I saw a baby on the video call, so she had it in the car on the way to the hospital. They're both strong and healthy, so happy days. I knew it was good juju. I knew we were going to have a good day."

Aki admitted he had one of his poorer games in the final Test when he looked a man who might have bigger things than rugby on his mind.

The Lions were denied a series whitewash by a fired-up Wallaby side who put some pride back in the gold jersey after losing the first two internationals.

Lightning interrupted the match, for 38 minutes, in the second half and the Australians struck after the break to nail the match after managing the delay better than the tourists. Tries from wing Max Jorgensen and replacement scrum-half Tate McDermott nailed the game leaving the tourists with a sour taste in their mouths after eight straight wins down under.

Aki added: “I wasn't great, myself. It was a poor game, but you have those days and you've just got to live with it. We won the series and that's all we came here for. We'd have loved a clean sweep but it didn't happen.

“They said it was a 45-minute break and they would let us know. We were all just sort of relaxed and then we got told, 'Oh we've got 10 minutes before we get out'. Everyone had to get on their feet and start moving again.

“There's no excuse. We were just behind the 8-ball. It's one of those games that was unique in itself, and the tour was unique. We'll take it as it is. Fair play to Australia, they played better.

“Now I want to enjoy my break, my family time. I haven't seen my family for eight weeks. I have a newborn child who I haven't met yet."