Article taken from Telegraph Rugby (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/key-career-moments/al-kellock-interview/?WT.mc_id=tmgspk_fbppc_2639_AtDKd0ydD68d&utm_source=tmgspk&utm_medium=fbppc&utm_content=2639&utm_campaign=tmgspk_fbppc_2639_AtDKd0ydD68d&pso=1)

What makes an international rugby player? Ability is the most obvious requirement but attitude is just as important and, more specifically, motivation can provide the extra few per cent that makes all the difference. For Al Kellock, motivation came from one man in particular.

Passing the baton
“I probably wouldn’t have played the game if my uncle David hadn’t put a rugby ball in my hand,” says Al Kellock, who won 56 caps for Scotland, 10 as captain, before retiring in 2015. “If we hadn’t been in the back garden running about or if I hadn’t gone with my dad to watch David play for Stirling County 2nds – or 3rds even at times...”

Kellock’s gratitude is all the more poignant because his uncle, David Drysdale, died from cancer at the age of 42, when Kellock was just 12. “In every single game that I’ve played in he’s been a driving force behind me. The saddest thing is that he never had the opportunity to see what I did.”

Father figure
Kellock’s father Stuart was not a rugby man – “he never played a game of rugby in his life” – but he still played a vital role in his son’s sporting education. “He started coaching when I first went to our local rugby club at the age of six and became the driving force behind our team at Allan Glen’s. He would arrange our fixtures, get our kit washed, drive us to games, drive the minibus to BT Murrayfield so we could watch international games.

“He took it all on. It was a huge sacrifice from him, in terms of time and energy, for a sport that wasn’t his sport.”

Standing tall
Family trips to watch Scotland games at BT Murrayfield were a childhood highlight for Kellock. But although he grew to be a towering, 6ft 8in second row, the future Scotland captain was not that tall as a boy. “I used to take a box with me because I wasn’t tall enough to see over the top of people,” he says.

He was in the crowd when Scotland famously beat England in the 1990 grand slam decider and managed to see Tony Stanger’s match-winning try in the corner – with the help of his box.

Role models
Now, in his role in the commercial department of Scottish Rugby, Kellock gets the chance to work with some of his childhood idols. “John Jeffrey and Finlay Calder, those guys were my major heroes growing up and now I’m lucky enough to work with JJ quite regularly, and other guys from that generation.

“Just last week I was hosting a panel that had Tony Stanger on it and we were chatting about his try in the corner in 1990. It’s a surreal world, as those guys were big motivating factors for me growing up.”

And it’s not only high-profile internationals who can inspire the next generation. Kellock believes passionately in the concept of the local hero. “I had ambitions to play for Scotland because my heroes played for Scotland, but ultimately I wanted to play 1st XV rugby for Allan Glen’s because when I was growing up the guys who played 1st XV rugby were also my heroes.

“Not all our kids want to grow up and be the next Stuart Hogg. It’s brilliant if they do but people need to see the value of just being involved in our sport.”

Happy memories
Retirement can be a traumatic time for a sportsman, the buzz of top-flight sport being so hard to leave behind or replace. Kellock feels lucky to still be closely connected to the sport he loves, through his job and his former club, Glasgow Warriors.

“I’m in the dressing room at BT Murrayfield from time to time, hosting events and working with our partners and sponsors,” he says. “That is the place that I miss the most. I don’t miss the game, I don’t miss the 80 minutes… it was too painful, physically painful, by the end.

“But I miss the changing rooms. I miss the honesty; I miss the camaraderie. You are at your best – and at your worst – in there but you are surrounded by people who are exactly the same and have been there and done it with you. That’s the part I miss.”

Next generation
While Kellock has been busy trying to absorb as many business lessons as he can in the four years since he retired as a player, he’s aware that he was able to pass on some of his rugby experience in his latter days. In particular he took the Gray brothers, Richie and Jonny, under his wing. “Richie ultimately took my Scotland jersey and Jonny took my Glasgow jersey, so I like to think I was good at mentoring rather than they were better players than me,” he jokes.

Jonny succeeded Kellock as Glasgow captain and the pair worked closely together to help bed the younger man in. “He would come to me and ask me certain things and that’s where I felt I was having an impact on him,” says Kellock. “I was at Newcastle in 2015 for the World Cup game against South Africa, when Richie got his 50th cap. The two of them were standing next to each other during the anthems and there was a point where I felt a definite sense of pride that I’d played some small part in them being there.”