Bundee Aki has expressed his frustration over the lack of cohesion with midfield partner Sione Tuipulotu during the British and Irish Lions' recent defeat by Argentina. The Lions were narrowly beaten 28-24 in their sole warm-up fixture before heading to Australia for a nine-game tour, including three Tests against the Wallabies.

Despite some encouraging signs with ball in hand, key passes often failed to connect, and Aki felt he did not 'connect well' with Tuipulotu. 'We all know how Sione is as a player, he's class,' said Aki, who was also part of the Lions' tour to South Africa four years ago. 'The frustrating thing for me was I wasn't able to connect well with him. He's an unbelievable player and there's no excuse, we've got to get better as a partnership going forward.'

Aki believes that improving individual combinations will be 'better and beneficial for the group.' 'He speaks out loud, which is good because that's what we need, him being himself and I just feed off him and he feeds off me. So it's brilliant,' Aki added. 'We've just got to be better at it and keep learning together, the more we grow as a partnership and then as a group, it's going to be better and beneficial for the group.'

Both Aki and Tuipulotu are more regularly deployed as inside centres, while fellow tourists Garry Ringrose, Huw Jones, and Elliot Daly are all more used to wearing the 13 jersey. Tuipulotu has an established partnership with Jones for both Glasgow and Scotland, while Aki and Ringrose know each other well from Irish sides. Aki emphasized the importance of the entire unit gelling together quickly. 'Whoever it is, Garry, Huw, Elliot, as a unit we've got to make sure we gel together and try to get that cohesiveness fairly quick because we need to be better.'