Saints' 110kg academy product who matched LRZ's 40-yard time nears NFL deal

Former Northampton Saints academy back-row Joshua Weru will be hoping to land an NFL contract later this week when the 2026 NFL draft gets underway.

The Kenya international was part of the 2026 International Player Pathway programme, following in the footsteps of Christian Wade and Louis Rees-Zammit, who had previously joined the programme from rugby union.

Like Wade and Rees-Zammit, the 110kg former back-row will be looking to sign a deal with an NFL side this week, as one of four IPP programme athletes who will be part of the 2026 draft.

At the IPP Pro Day combine in Virginia in March, Weru, who is a defensive lineman in American football, registered a 41-inch vertical jump and an 11-foot, 2-inch broad jump. Most interestingly, the 6 foot, 4 inch Saints academy product ran a 4.45-second 40-yard dash at 110kg, which was only 0.02 seconds slower than Rees-Zammit’s time of 4.43 seconds.

An NFL deal would be the latest chapter in what has been a circuitous sporting career for the Kenyan so far. Weru joined the Saints academy as a 14-year-old, later joining the Dax Espoirs in France. He made his international debut as a teenager, scoring in his first appearance in a 2023 World Cup repechage defeat to the USA, before earning a further two caps against Portugal and Hong Kong.

 

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Speaking to Kenya’s Capital FM in March, he discussed the challenges he has faced transitioning from rugby to American football.

“I think the biggest challenge has been being focused every day,” he said.

“That might not sound like the biggest challenge, but we’re not only doing physical work. For me, the physical side hasn’t been the biggest challenge because I’m used to working very hard from rugby and being pushed physically.

“The bigger challenge has been learning a new game. At least when I started, it felt like learning a new language, how quickly you have to process everything they’re telling you, how accurate you have to be in the language you use, in how you draw up plays and all of that. That has probably been the biggest challenge, but we’ve had a very good group supporting us as we learn all these things.”