Josh Kronfeld
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Joshua Adrian "Josh" Kronfeld (born June 20, 1971) is a former international rugby union player for the New Zealand All Blacks. During his international career, he played in 56 games for the All Blacks, gaining 54 test caps, including appearances at both the 1995 and 1999 Rugby Union World Cups. He played as an openside flanker. In his playing years, he stood 1.85m tall and weighed 94kg.
As a player, Kronfeld's biggest attribute was considered to be the speed with which he was able to get to breakdowns in play, in order to gain or regain possession of the ball.
Kronfeld was born in Hastings in the Hawkes Bay, and attended Hastings Boys' High School. He played his early rugby union at scrum-half and centre, switching to flanker at high school.
In 1990 he moved to Dunedin to study physical education at the University of Otago. Here he became involved in the Otago University Rugby Club. After playing one game in 1992, Kronfeld gained a starting position in the Otago team in the National Provincial Championship (NPC) for 1993. Kronfeld would eventually play 69 matches for Otago.
He made his All Black test debut in 1995, playing against Canada at Eden Park in Auckland. He played in the 1995 Rugby World Cup including the final in which the All Blacks lost a thrilling game to South Africa.
After the inception of the Super 12 competition in 1996, Kronfeld also played for the Highlanders Super 12 franchise. In total, Kronfeld made 42 appearances for the Highlanders.
He made five appearances in the All Blacks’ 1999 World Cup campaign, which included the game against England and the amazing semi-final with France that took place at Twickenham.
Kronfeld remained a first choice player for Otago, the Highlanders and the All Blacks until 2000, at which point he moved to England to take up a contract with Leicester Tigers.
After an injury-hit start to the 2001/02 season he recovered well, establishing himself as a regular first team player. He was twice voted by fans Player of the month, once Zurich Premiership player of the month and then named by his Tigers colleagues as their Players' Player of the Season 2002/3.
In 2003, Kronfeld returned to New Zealand, and subsequently retired from first class rugby. He has made numerous media appearances, e.g. Celebrity Treasure Island. He has also returned to the University of Otago to study physiotherapy.
