The 'cheery, jolly' 20-year-old Kiwi making rapid strides at Irish

Declan Kidney has given his approval to the rapid progress Chandler Cunningham-South has made at London Irish since joining the Gallagher Premiership club’s academy just last February. The New Zealander, who played for North Harbour U18s, Canterbury U19s and Lincoln University in Christchurch – as well as training with rugby league’s NZ Warriors – before arriving in England, was quickly introduced to the international age-grade rugby system, playing in three U20s Six Nations matches.

After a 13-minute Irish debut away to Bath in the final Premiership match of the 2021/22 campaign, Cunninghan-South returned to Alan Dickens’ U20s set-up to play four more games with England in their Summer Series.

Since then, he has returned to an Irish squad that lost back-rowers Sean O’Brien to retirement and Albert Tuisue to a transfer – and thrived.

A starter last month at Bristol, last Friday’s 19 minutes off the bench against Gloucester was the fifth energetic appearance of the 2022/23 Premiership for Cunningham-South and Kidney has enjoyed seeing what the dreadlocked 120kg No8/flanker/lock has been bringing to the top flight fight with Irish.

Asked by RugbyPass for his verdict on the versatile forward whose career has pressed the accelerator in 2022, Kidney said: “He has played more for England U20s than he has played for us. We integrated him in and at the last game of the season with Bath, we had what I would call a circle of life photo.

“We had Sean, Albert and Chandler. Sean was retiring, Albert was moving on and Chandler was stepping in. You need to keep that cycle of players within your squad. He enjoys the game and that is what you want younger players to do – enjoy and learn at the same time because some of the good things that he does are clear and obvious for people to see and then there are some areas that he knows he has to work in.

“Thankfully, Chandler is an intelligent young man and is more than aware of how much growth there is left in him to get to where he could go. He is a cheery, jolly fella. He brings a good atmosphere to the changing room. He’s a good lad, good company.”