This weekend, when he plays under the covered verandah of Forsyth Barr Stadium to take on the All Blacks, Chandler Cunningham-South will complete a poignant milestone in his young career.
The 21-year-old, loud-mouthed blindside flanker, finds himself on a remarkably steep path. Cunningham-South grew up in New Zealand, where his parents emigrated four years after he was born in Sidcup, and spent his teenage years as a rep for Westlake Boys’ High School north of Auckland.
Well, the ‘clumsy child’ wanted to play more than he was allowed.
“He had a bit of a reputation,” recalls Hugh McGahan, an icon of the New Zealand 13-a-side team who has been Westlake’s director of rugby for a decade.
“I don’t like to be dishonest, although sometimes I don’t like to be too honest. The coaches loved Chandler, but his attendance at school and some of his behaviors were not great. The manager at the time, Mr. Young, and myself, we would always talk to the coaches, ‘He does this, this, this, and he doesn’t put in any effort in the classroom.’
“Part of our rule here is that if you want to play sports here, you have to have other things in order. You don’t have to be the best in the class, but you have to put in the effort. And he wasn’t. We were fighting with coaches week in and week out: ‘You’ve got to slow him down.’
“He was such a talent, but he wasted it and we had to hold on to what we wanted to get the message across to everyone. We can laugh about it now. When his name comes up, there’s a few eyes rolling and a few laughs.”
McGahan admits that Cunningham-South probably “didn’t like me very much because I was strict.” But he paints a picture of a charismatic, unmistakable figure. Cunningham-South was the first Westlake student to be allowed to wear his hair in dreadlocks, and he could rarely break a smile without a beaming grin.
Despite occasionally hanging out with peers who were on the ‘shady side’, he was a stimulating presence. On the field, Cunningham-South gradually learned to play to his strengths.
“I’ve got to be honest, he didn’t like to switch bodies too much in the beginning,” McGahan continued. “He was always on and around the ball and liked to carry, but our coach at the time, Mark Manihera, basically said ‘I don’t need you to do that. I need you to switch bodies, to clear bodies, to clear the ruck area’. Chandler took that to heart and became an exceptional player in that area.
“He was a powerful kid overall and a lot of guys didn’t want to train against him… even when we had shields and pads. Chandler ended up liking it because he knew he was doing damage.”
‘He snuck away to play rugby’
Rugby union is a small world and two weeks ago every team in Tokyo featured a Westlake alumnus. Tiennan Costley, who started as openside flanker for the hosts, was a contemporary who tried to keep Cunningham-South on the straight and narrow.
Rugby was also a distraction.
“Rugby league was played on Wednesday and rugby [union] “It was played on Saturdays,” McGahan says. “Sometimes he would try to sneak out and get out of class to go to the rugby league games. A couple of times, I think, we caught him getting on the bus to go to the rugby league games. It was, ‘Get back, get back to class.’”
Cunningham-South attended Hamilton Boys’ High School for Westlake before going to Lincoln University on a sports scholarship, where he played mainly for the second tier, known as the premier reserves, against local Christchurch clubs. Due to Covid, crowds were limited to around 100.
Peter Magson, a 30-year employee of Lincoln University, has seen some exceptional talent. Scott Barrett, the recently appointed All Blacks skipper, visited the institution. Finn Russell also came through. The most talented person Magson encountered was Jordie Barrett. But he certainly appreciated Cunningham-South.
“If you had a bit of broken play from the ruck, he was decisive,” says Magson, now manager of Lincoln’s sports scholarship program. “I remember he had a bit of speed with those long, lithe, giraffe-like legs. He was probably the tallest player in our club at the time, even though he was only 18. Everyone knew he had a pretty high ceiling and he’s already achieved some of that potential.”
“We have to get this guy out here, now”
After a year at Lincoln and a few games for Canterbury Under-19s, Cunningham-South sent out a highlights film that ended up in Sunbury, among other places. Jonathan Fisher, then forwards coach at London Irish with close ties to the academy, was astonished.
“Blimey, mate,” Fisher sighs. “I think he was playing for Canterbury Under-19. I didn’t watch it that long, of course, but he was playing in red and black stripes. It was the way he carried the ball; the ferocity and the dynamism, the ability to get into small spaces by, in effect, pushing people out of his way.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t understand how this person could get on a plane and leave New Zealand. I remember seeing a carry three or four times and sprinting into Declan Kidney’s office, with Les Kiss in it, saying, ‘We’ve got to get this guy out here now.’ It was almost one of those too-good-to-be-true situations.
“When he arrived, the first session we had was a non-23 session on a Saturday morning before an afternoon Premiership game. People throw the word ‘raw’ around a lot, but he couldn’t have been more the embodiment of that term. He didn’t really understand how to train. The fundamentals of his game were quite loose. But he had a big old smile and a desire to get the ball and make something happen.”
The rest is history and a meteoric rise worthy of a movie script. Cunningham-South joined Irish in February 2022, playing a few games for Esher and was quickly brought up to the English age-grade system. The 2022-23 season under Kidney and Kiss was a huge success and Steve Borthwick ensured Cunningham-South was fast-tracked to the 2024 Six Nations, retaining him for the tour in a sign of the diamond in the rough’s immense promise.
Playing against Ardie Savea, the reigning World Player of the Year, and the rest of New Zealand’s back row will be a different challenge altogether. Cunningham-South will have his mother, Caroline, and more family and friends with him. No one expected the roguish schoolboy to rocket into the Test arena so quickly. Where he can take his game from here is anyone’s guess.
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