Jarrod Cunningham (7 September 1968 – 23 July 2007) was a New Zealand rugby union

fullback Fullback or Full back may refer to: Sports * A position in various kinds of football, including: ** Full-back (association football), in association football (soccer), a defender playing in a wide position ** Fullback (gridiron football), in Americ ...

. Born in Hawke's Bay, Cunningham played for his home town rugby club from 1990 to 1997, during which time he was trialed for the All Blacks in 1993, but was kept out of the side by Andrew Mehrtens. He played

Super 12 Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

rugby for

Auckland Blues The Blues (known as the Auckland Blues from 1996 to 2000) is a New Zealand professional rugby union team based in Auckland, who play in the Super Rugby competition. Like New Zealand's four other Super Rugby teams, the Blues were established by ...

in 1996, and then Wellington Hurricanes in the 1997/98 season. In July 1998, he joined English Premiership Rugby side London Irish, playing 82 games and scoring 18 tries and 848 points. In the 2000/1 season he was the leagues leading points scorer, with 324. After tests at Charing Cross Hospital, Cunningham was diagnosed with suffering from

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most comm ...

(ALS; also known as Lou Gehrig's disease), in June 2002. He immediately retired from professional rugby, and started the Jarrod Cunningham SALSA Foundation in March 2003 with the aim of providing 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. He returned home to New Zealand in December 2004. He died at his home on 23 July 2007.

References

External links

Report of death and short career history at London Irish

Interview with Jarrod Cunningham
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Jarrod 1968 births 2007 deaths Deaths from motor neuron disease Neurological disease deaths in New Zealand London Irish players Wasps RFC players New Zealand rugby union players Rugby union fly-halves Rugby union fullbacks Hawke's Bay rugby union players Hurricanes (rugby union) players New Zealand expatriate rugby union players Expatriate rugby union players in England New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England Rugby union players from the Hawke's Bay Region