Jarrod Cunningham was born in September 1968 in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand.

Between 1990 and 1996 Jarrod played for his home town team, and he played Super Rugby for the Auckland Blues and Wellington Hurricanes.

His London Irish career started in 1998. Jarrod remained with the exiles until 2002, playing in 82 games and scoring 848 points (including 18 tries). He was the Premierships leading points scorer in the 2000/2001 season.

Jarrod was due to join Wasps for the 2002-03 season, but was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS – also sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease), a form of Motor Neurone Disease in the summer of 2002 and retired from professional rugby.

Jarrod started the Jarrod Cunningham SALSA Foundation in March 2003 to help provide hope, education and inspiration for fellow sufferers of ALS.
In November 2004 he was awarded the IRB Spirit of Rugby award in recognition of his work in raising awareness of the disease.

Jarrod passed away on 23rd July 2007. RIP Jarrod.

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