‘I had to leave New Zealand for my career – but I really miss the KFC’

There have been more home comforts for him around this way, clearly. Cunningham-South moved to New Zealand from Sidcup, the town of his birth, when he was four years old. His parents, Richard and Caroline, still have a small beef farm in Wellsford, 50 miles north of Auckland.

He has managed to catch up with them regularly, as they came to watch him play Japan in Tokyo and his mother attended the first New Zealand Test in Dunedin last Saturday in a 16-15 defeat.

Cunningham-South was raised in Auckland but returned to England and joined London Irish before moving to Harlequins last summer

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One of many in the touring squad who had never faced the All Blacks, he was at an advantage when it came to the haka. Through school games for Hamilton Boys or Westlake Boys, where he gained a scholarship to play rugby in Auckland, he has seen all this ceremony before.

What did he think during Kapa O Pango, the All Blacks’ haka?

“Let’s go. Let’s go, I guess,” he replies. “It got me excited to play. You do hakas in school so I got to see a few of them. You have to learn it but there are lots of different hakas — every school has their own — so I wouldn’t know how to do the haka they did. I knew my school one but I wouldn’t be able to do it now.”

So was he able to advise the other young English players on what to expect in the week before the first Test? Not quite. His local knowledge has secured the squad a fresh set of haircuts, though.

“I’m not sure what my university second XV experience would be able to help with,” Cunningham-South replies. “I don’t really have much insight into what goes on with the All Blacks.”

Cunningham-South is not the sort to get overawed but he did have a quiet moment of reflection before the game. “I was thinking that the last time I played a game in New Zealand I was playing for Lincoln University second XV about three years ago. It is quite a big U-turn I guess. It’s cool,” he says.

That institution is the place where the All Blacks captain, Scott Barrett, studied agriculture and the head coach, Scott Robertson, completed a sports and recreation degree, but it was by no means a place that offered a guaranteed route to the top for Cunningham-South.

Cunningham-South has impressed since getting his chance with England

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He was disappointed not to have made the Crusaders academy as a teenager and did not fancy sitting on his hands, so sent clips of his matches to coaches around the world. London Irish jumped at the chance to help mould this 6ft 4in, 18st forward, and sent him to Esher for a couple of games before bringing him into their team in May 2022. The rest is (very recent) history; his England debut came in the Six Nations, away to Italy in February.

“I guess everything happens for a reason,” he says with a wide smile. “I just wanted to be given the opportunity to get in the system somewhere and work hard. Hopefully something came at the end of it, which it has and so that’s good. I’m just grateful that I got the opportunity.

“When I made the decision to leave I thought, ‘I have to do something with this; I can’t just go there and chill out,’ because it was a long way from my mum and dad, so I had to make sure it was worth it.

“I didn’t get the opportunity here [in New Zealand], so I was going to go and make sure everyone knows I can work hard and I can get to where I want to be. I think that was the right place for me at the right time. Maybe if it had been a year earlier, probably not, but at that time I felt like it was.

“Learning all that professional stuff was quite hard for me. But then getting help along the way, when I was at Irish, was very helpful. The guys there guided me on the right path.”

He holds no grudge that he was rejected by the New Zealand system and is proud to be playing for the country of his birth. His physicality and other growing skills will be vital if England are to draw this series by beating the All Blacks in New Zealand on Saturday, which would be the first time since 2003, the year Cunningham-South was born.

With Ardie Savea and Dalton Papali’i causing England havoc at the breakdown in Dunedin, Cunningham-South, with Sam Underhill, Ben Earl and Tom Curry, will need to neutralise them better.

Cunningham-South is learning from Itoje when it comes to lineout play

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“Those two guys are big jackal threats,” Cunningham-South says of New Zealand’s No8 and 7. “You can train all you want but it’s quite hard when you’re over the ball. I guess you’ve got to get there quick.”

This has been a season where Cunningham-South, following his head coach Borthwick’s advice, has been expanding his game to become a lineout forward. He had never jumped before this year, but working with Borthwick and Maro Itoje, he is honing the craft quickly.

“I have got the right people in my corner,” he says. “It’s tough to learn all the calls. There’s a lot more than when you’re just out in the back line running.

“You have a different menu every week so you have to learn fast. There’s a lot of stuff going on. You have got to be quite coordinated with your feet and then be explosive off the ground.”

Dominating the All Blacks on the floor and in the air are only two of several tough tasks for Cunningham-South this week. First he has to source as many tickets as he can for his Kiwi friends for Eden Park, a stadium he has never been to despite living in Auckland for most of his life.

“There’s high demand, it just depends how many I can get,” Cunningham-South says. “I know there’s a lot of history there and what it means to their team, but I suppose it’s also an opportunity for us to get to play there which is good. I’m excited and I think all the boys are excited.”

If Cunningham-South can help England produce a historic zinger against the All Blacks, Sunday’s fried chicken feast will taste even better.

New Zealand v England

Eden Park, Auckland
Saturday, kick-off 8.05am (BST)
TV: Sky Sports Action/Main Event