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'Real deal' Chandler Cunningham-South compared to LeBron James

Newly capped England flanker Chandler Cunningham-South may have only enjoyed a 15-minute cameo from the bench against Italy, but it was enough to turn some heads, with two former Test captains speaking very highly of him.

Newly capped England flanker Chandler Cunningham-South may have only enjoyed a 15-minute cameo from the bench against Italy in round one of the Guinness Six Nations, but it was enough to turn some heads, with two former Test captains speaking very highly of him.

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Former Wales, and British & Irish Lions captain Sam Warburton and former Scotland captain John Barclay were effusive in their praise of the 20-year-old on the BBC’s ‘Rugby Special’ after the weekend’s action, where the Welshman described him as the “real deal for England”.

The Harlequins back row made his mark in defence during his stint on the field at the Stadio Olimpico as England came away with a 27-24 win, and has been tipped by Warburton to be the successor to Courtney Lawes in the No6 jersey.

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“I was watching Harlequins playing my club Cardiff, and I watched a few of their games and I thought ‘flipping heck, who’s this guy?'” Warburton said.

“He’s only 20 years old, he’s come from the under-20s system, came from London Irish who obviously disbanded. You’ve got a serious athlete here, great work-rate in defence, he works so hard off the ball. Not many players this big can move like this.

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“This is a serious athlete that England have got on their hands. I hope he has more game time because I think he can be a massive name for England moving forward, particularly with Courtney Lawes leaving, leaving a massive hole in their back row. I think Cunningham-South could be the real deal for England moving forward.”

Barclay too was not shy to shower Cunningham-South in praise, saying he is built like LeBron James- one of the premier athletes in any sport.

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“Big name, great name, enormous human being, great hair,” the Scot said. “But he can actually play rugby as well. I was watching him at the weekend, and I’ve not seen a huge amount of him play, he’s the same sort of shape as LeBron James, but he can move and he’s physical and he looks angry and we’ve just seen the very, very start of him I think.”

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Comments

2 Comments
j
john 288 days ago

Love to see him start maybe at 8 with Earle at 7

m
matt 288 days ago

Lebron James? Simmer down

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Hellhound 16 minutes ago
France put World Cup pain behind them with unbeaten run in November

France is starting to look like they are finally over their WC headache, although they were lucky that NZ had a very bad game. The Argies as usual is one game good, the next bad. If they can sort that out and be more consistent, they could become contenders for the WC.


NZ, Argentina (if they are more consistent), and now the Wallabies too is in an upward curve (can they be consistent?), as well as Fiji(as inconsistent as Argentina) looks like possible contenders. The Boks will be as usual a huge threat to defend their title. Things are looking up for the South, so the North should rightfully beware of the Southern Hemisphere threat.


With the French looking dangerous, the English with their close runs (mostly a mindset problem) and the Scottish seems to be the NH main contenders. The Irish is good, but not excellent anymore. They are more overbearing and with their glory days mostly gone with old players hanging on by a thread, by 2027 if they don't start adding in the younger players, they won't make it past yet another WC Quarter final. The problem is that their youngsters, while good is nothing special.


That is just 8 teams without the Irish that can become real WC contenders. Lots of hickups to be sorted still for these teams, excluding the Boks to become a threat. Make no mistake, the top Tier is much closer than people realise and the 2027 WC will be a really great WC, possibly the best contended WC ever.

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