Ease open the clubhouse doors at Kaiapoi Rugby Football Club, a little ways north of Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island, and one family’s influence is everywhere.
Josh McKay, the swashbuckling Glasgow full-back, was practically raised between these four walls and the grass pitches outside, a North Canterbury upbringing steeped in rugby, community and embracing the land. The family house is across the road from the rugby club. McKay spent his formative years scaling the fence and galivanting around the first-team pitch; he’d take a peek inside the empty dressing rooms, and sit in the same spot where his dad suited up every other Saturday. When he scored Glasgow’s fastest-ever try on URC origins weekend back in February, his whirling legs were encased in a pair of Kaiapoi-coloured socks.
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McKay’s late grandfather, Rick Moore, was a Kaiapoi life member whose name, embossed in gold, proudly adorns a trophy cabinet erected in his memory at the back of the clubroom stage. His father, Doug McKay, has his moniker on the wall in the list of club centurions, and is now Kaiapoi president. And inside his granddad’s cabinet, alongside all the old trophies, faded rugby balls and sprawling shields, sits McKay’s Mitre 10 Cup-winning Canterbury jersey and medal, the only place he’d have dreamed of putting it.
“It was almost the perfect upbringing for me,” he says. “I was never pushed into rugby, I always wanted to do it even though dad coached me from Under-5s to U11s, you could say I had no say in it. From two or three years old, I’d run around outside hacking a rugby ball around. Kaiapoi is special.”
McKay was nearly 24 when his deep-rooted dream of playing for Kaiapoi’s seniors was finally realised. As a boy of such clear sporting talent, he had to go to the city to pursue professional and provincial honours, bypassing the club where he’d come of age. The Highlanders took him south for three seasons, before a year with the Crusaders juggernaut in 2021, and the chance, at last, to play for his people.
“The pathway to professional rugby unfortunately nowadays is in town, you don’t get looked at much in country,” he says. “When I went to the Highlanders I wondered, ‘man, will I ever get to put on the Kaiapoi jersey?’ The Crusaders didn’t force me to play in town, they let me play for Kaiapoi.
My mum cried when I ran on for my debut. It’s not professional at all, it’s just good country rugby, but it’s got that real emotional connection which is what I loved.
“My mum cried when I ran on for my debut. It’s not professional at all, it’s just good country rugby, but it’s got that real emotional connection which is what I loved. Because I grew up around the club, watching my dad’s mates – they were all my heroes growing up. To actually play with a lot of boys I grew up and came through the grades with, was awesome.”
By that stage, McKay had agreed to leave New Zealand, eager to have a lash at European rugby and join a Glasgow team whose attacking blueprint meshed neatly with his own free-wheeling ethos. Today, three years on, he is reigning player of the season for the URC conquerors.
Glasgow’s title was a Scottish sporting triumph for the ages, the sacking of Loftus Versfeld certainly the greatest result in national club rugby history. Their route to the trophy was laden with landmines. They did the Stormers at home in the last eight, went to bitter foes Munster in the semis and tackled Thomond Park into broody silence, then scaled the competition’s Everest: obliterate the aura of Loftus, best the altitude and the travel and the scant training time, and defeat the Bulls in their own stronghold. It was McKay’s first win in South Africa at the eighth time of asking.
“When the final whistle went, I was the furthest person away from the ball, being a full-back watching a defensive maul on the 5m line. You couldn’t see what was happening other than the boys celebrating before the ref had blown his whistle – we’ve done something! I ran in, there were tears, happiness, it was really special to do it with this group which we’ve built over the past couple of seasons, and at an absolute fortress of world rugby.
“We won the semi-final at Thomond Park on the Saturday night, and ‘Pump’ [John Manson] our manager was in the sheds straight afterwards looking at flights. We travelled over in two separate groups. We did a little bit on the grass here at Scotstoun on the Monday and didn’t really come together as a team again until Thursday.
“The trust was put on us: ‘the work has been done and we trust you guys and trust the process’. We didn’t need a perfect training week. That’s why you put in all the hard work in the middle of winter when it’s absolutely slashing down, or you’re doing all the down-ups in pre-season. It wasn’t a perfect build-up but we didn’t need it to be.
“The celebrations would have made most Scotsmen proud. We put in a good shift, we finished up on Wednesday, and we gave it a good nudge. We all know the Scots love a pint or two. It was all the emotions wrapped up in one.”
There was soon yet more to celebrate. Five days after the champagne and the cigars and the ski masks in Pretoria, McKay was perched on a Santorini terrace with an engagement ring in his hand.
“We won the final on Saturday, flew to Greece on Thursday, and I dropped the knee to my fiancée Lily on Friday morning. I didn’t want to do it in a public place, we had a little balcony with quite a nice view overlooking Santorini, so did it on the decking. I thought she might cry, she was welling up but no tears running down so I class that as a win. We are going to get married in February 2026, back in New Zealand during the summer in front of all our friends and family.”
Franco just wants rugby players. He’s made it pretty clear, with our nines playing on the wing, Gregor Hiddleston, our hooker, filling in at loose forward, some of our loosies playing lock.
The couple spend much of their downtime travelling and savouring the countryside. When he wasn’t making mischief at Kaiapoi, McKay would be out on the water, fishing or diving, and later stalking the hills for deer.
“My old man was a diver so I got into that when I was quite young. I got my dive ticket when I was 14. I didn’t get into hunting until I met a few of the boarders at high school, but I always had that passion for the outdoors, and that hunter-gatherer side.
“I’ve done a wee bit of hunting and a diving here, out on the west coast, and had some success with the scallops. I was out having a dive the other day, still ticking that side of things over. I need that balance. I can’t be all rugby, rugby, rugby, I’ve got to have that reset and get out in nature. Lily loves the outdoors as well, she comes and watches me from the shore so I don’t swim too far away.”
This has been a statement year in many senses. McKay’s first season in Scotland was hindered by an ankle injury, his second curtailed by a damaged foot which kept him out of the Challenge Cup final loss to Toulon.
His numbers hit stratospheric heights along the title trail. He gobbled up the most running metres of any URC player – an average of 110m per match – was third for ball-carries, second for tackle-breaks and sixth for offloads. No Warrior carried more ball and no Glasgow full-back has ever beaten his try tally of seven in a single season. Franco Smith’s possession-hungry strategy puts the pill in McKay’s hands and allows him great freedom.
“I felt I almost had to redeem myself,” McKay says. “With my ankle, I’d been able to play but not at 100%. Then I hurt my foot and missed seven months. I wanted to do everything I could to be available every week.
“As a full-back in our team, it helps getting more touches as we don’t kick it back as much or get into kick battles. You’re going to get more ball and carry more ball. We are the last line of defence but our D is pretty solid in the front line so I didn’t have to make too many tackles last year. In attack, we’ve got a free licence to roam, the more we can get involved and help out, the better.
“Franco just wants rugby players. He’s made it pretty clear, with our nines playing on the wing, Gregor Hiddleston, our hooker, filling in at loose forward, some of our loosies playing lock. He wants rugby players who can slot in and fill a core role.”
It’s almost time to go again. A new season hoves into view. With a collective trophy, an individual award and a successful marriage proposal, how does McKay rouse himself for another campaign?
Smith’s standards are notoriously exacting; Glasgow’s squad yearning to build a dynasty, having been so unfancied in the play-offs and now bearing so coveted a scalp as champions. The group believes more tangible honours are within their grasp, so long as their toil does not relent.
“Nothing is given, everything has got to be earned again,” McKay says. “Last season means nothing – other than this season being even harder because all of a sudden, the competition winners are coming to town and teams want to topple them. The season I had with the Crusaders, they put their unbelievable title-winning run together, they were willing to work so hard, they know every week the opposition is going to be out for blood.
“If we want that trophy again, we have to go and win it, we can’t defend it. It’s not just talking about it – it’s bringing it to life. It’s very easy to say, ‘we’ve got to win it again’ but in the back of your mind, are you really working as hard? Franco hates the word ‘complacency’ – there’s got to be no room for complacency. We’ve got to work our arses off.”
For the first time since moving to Scotland, McKay will go back to New Zealand this November. Lily will wear her engagement ring and McKay will carry his URC medal to show his family and the stalwarts propping up the Kaiapoi bar. Maybe, amongst the balls and the shirts and the trophies, it’ll find permanent residence in his grandfather’s cabinet.
Glasgow have been operating ahead of themselves, to varying extents, for well over a decade now. But last years triumph was truly one for the ages!!!
Franco has done a phenomenal job and I certainly wouldn’t back against him raising the bar further still. The only wrinkle with that is he will soon start to attract some very enticing offers, although I reckon if Scottish rugby treat him respectfully and look after him well, he is a very loyal kinda guy…🤞
Yeah don't do a Leicester City