Exclusive:Josh Kerr on his Scotland rugby or athletics dilemma and competing against Finn Russell's wife
World mile record-holder to deliver match ball at Scotland v All Blacks Murrayfield clash
The fastest miler in the world used to dream about running out at Murrayfield and Josh Kerr will realise his ambition on Saturday when he delivers the match ball ahead of Scotland’s Nations Championship match against New Zealand.
The distance from players’ tunnel to centre spot is a lot shorter than he is used to but it will still be a bucket-list moment for the Edinburgh athlete who has flown home from his training base in the US for the occasion.
Kerr, 29, grew up in a rugby-daft household and played the sport at school, in tandem with athletics, before the latter took over.
No-one could dispute that he made the right decision and in the last year alone he has won the world indoor championship over 3000 metres, broken the world mile record, which had stood for 27 years, and been crowned Commonwealth Games champion in Glasgow over the same distance.
In a year of sporting high achievers, Kerr is right up there and is now in the running for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, World Athlete of the Year and World Athletics’ moment of the year.
I grew up in a rugby family
But on Saturday his focus will be fully on rugby as hopes to inspire Scotland to first ever win over the All Blacks.
“When I got asked to do this it was one of those bucket list things,” Kerr told The Scotsman. “I grew up in a very big rugby family, and so just to be around it is incredibly special. It took me a little bit convincing myself because I'm in my own zone sometimes when it comes to training but there are only a handful of things that are above that, and this is definitely one of them.”
His father, John, was a pacy wing/centre with Haddington and Watsonians and made 11 appearances for the Scotland A team in the 1990s. Josh’s older brother Jake, 30, won full international honours when he was selected by Gregor Townsend for Scotland’s 2019 Six Nations opener against Italy at Murrayfield. Jake, a hooker for Leicester Tigers and Bristol Bears, came off the bench and helped the Scots to a 33-20 win, with Blair Kinghorn scoring a hat-trick and Huw Jones and Finn Russell also featuring.
“He had an awesome career, and rugby's a really tough sport, with injuries, and he definitely dealt with his fair share of them,” said Kerr of his older sibling.
Injuries also convinced the younger Kerr to step away from rugby in his teenage years as his sporting ambitions reached a crossroads. He played in the backline for George Watson’s College but the pull of athletics was already strong.
I played rugby until I was 15
“I played rugby until I was 15, and then my injury rate was just going through the roof,” he explained. “The guys were getting bigger, going into the gym, and I was kind of blending multiple sports, and not wanting to get much bigger.
“But I want to make sure people know that my rugby brain and the way that I was built meant that I was never gonna have the success that my brother or my dad had in rugby, so it made sense to go in a different direction. But I tell myself that it was mainly just because of the size!”
If his rugby ambitions were starting to wither, his progress at Edinburgh Athletics Club, which he joined at the age of eight, was going in the other direction.
“I had been dropped to maybe the second team, or was spending a lot more time on the bench in rugby, and I was winning a lot of races, so then it was just a decision of, ‘okay, how far can I go in each?’”
Heart said rugby, head said athletics
Kerr had turned out at stand-off, centre and full-back for Watson’s but recalibrated his ambitions from wanting to be a professional rugby player, turning his focus instead to the track.
“I was getting more into running and finding great results, and my heart's telling me one thing, my head's telling me the other thing. There was a conversation with my parents, with me saying, ‘I think it's time to start moving towards running’, and they were like, ‘yeah, no shit!’ That's what they wanted for me, but their big thing was, ‘we want you to do what you want to do, and if this is what you want to do, then let's go all in on it’.”
It was the best kind of advice. Kerr developed into a world-class middle-distance runner, winning medals at both the 2020 and 2024 Olympics Games and being crowned 1500m world champion in 2023.
Townsend will be hoping some of the Kerr magic rubs off on his squad this weekend as they seek to end their miserable run against the All Blacks. Kerr spent time with the Scotland players on Friday but had crossed paths with some of them already.
I used to compete alongside Finn Russell's wife
“I've definitely rubbed shoulders with them at random points,” he said. “I used to compete alongside Finn Russell's wife [heptathlete Emma Canning], growing up, and she was an awesome athlete as well.”
Russell will be front and centre at Murrayfield as Scotland seek that elusive first win and Kerr feels privileged to play his part by helping lift the crowd pre-match. The runner was blown away by the reception he received when he won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in August and knows the importance of a home support.
“It's an absolute honour to be asked to be a part of it and it's why I made sure that I was here. And anything I can do to be around this kind of atmosphere, and help Scotland continue to prove that they're an amazing sporting nation, I’ll do.”
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