Among a country absolutely obsessive about its rugby and brimming with countless legends, former All Black Josh Kronfeld is something of an anomaly.
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The flanker enjoyed a distinguished career for New Zealand, winning 54 caps and scoring 14 tries for the men from the Land of the Long White Cloud.
Kronfeld, 44, played in two Rugby World Cups. He was part of New Zealand teams who lost the 1995 final to hosts South Africa, then were taken apart by France in a 43-31 semi-final defeat four years later.
Away from rugby, however, Kronfeld is renowned for being the very antithesis of a typical player. He is a keen surfer and has appeared on television back in New Zealand on shows such as Celebrity Treasure Island and Dancing with the Stars.
Since retiring, he has also graduated from the University of Otago with a physiotherapy degree. Kronfeld is part of OSN’s Rugby World Cup coverage in the UAE.
Is there pressure on the All Blacks because of the tag they don’t really perform well in World Cups outside of New Zealand?
Yeah. We’ve only won at home. We haven’t won away and I guess that’s in the back of everyone’s mind. There’s a certain amount of pressure.
Home advantage is really important. It’s a massive plus and strength to a team. Everyone rooting for you and you feel that energy. Any team travelling away you don’t have that luxury and you have all the hangups that come with travelling away.
Things aren’t as easy, they don’t just happen and you have to be a tight camp. But it’s possible and teams do it, but it’s definitely a harder ask.
New Zealand, for whatever reason, have never won it outside their own country. New Zealand are so strong but give us a reason why they won’t win it?
You could argue that they’re undercooked after the group stage, but I think the build-up has been pretty tough.
Argentina knocked over the big teams. Australia knocked us over and South Africa lost out due to a lack of fitness and a bench, and also knocking over Samoa was no easy task either. They’ve got their edge through that and the pool stage was a case of taking a step back, assessing what has and hasn’t worked and they’ll have used it to find their flow and build up to the quarter-finals.
They might be undercooked but for another team to win the World Cup, it has to be a variable outside of what the All Blacks can control.
Do you think they’re beatable?
They’re definitely beatable. Bring the weather into it. We know how heavy those English fields can get and it changes the whole dynamic.
If any team can get frustrated at not being allowed to do what they like doing New Zealand teams can be like that. They get deeply upset if they can’t do that and that’s what teams need to do. You don’t want to play their game against them, you’re going to head butt yourself.
Who will win the World Cup?
World Cup rugby, when you get to those knockout rounds, is simply about how you perform on the day. Any team can slip up and any team can win.
New Zealand, on paper, are doing everything more consistently than anyone else. They still have weaknesses but on paper they’re the strongest.
South Africa have the strength to go right through but do they have the depth and fitness? If Australia can get that consistency that hasn’t been there recently then maybe they can sneak it.
New Zealand had a tough game against Samoa before the World Cup and you also had a few run-ins with them as a player. Tell us about that?
Samoa are one of the toughest teams to play against. One, they’re just going to beat you up. They’re not an evil team, they’re just physically full on.
I hated playing against [new UAE 15s head coach] Apollo Perelini. He was going to legally take my head off. It was just the way he tackled. Brian Lima was known as the ‘Chiropractor’ because he put people in hospital. He just folded people in half and it was legal. And, it’s not like he was a massive dude. He was very skinny. He’d hit you just under the diaphragm and his timing was great, he’d pole axe people.
Who is the best player you have ever played with or against?
I’ve been very lucky. I got to play both with and against Michael Jones. I grew up watching him as a kid wanting to be Michael. Ruben Kruger was a very hard man to play against. On the same front Paul Henderson was in a very similar mold and whenever I played against them nothing ever went right.
What was your career highlight?
I never got the big one of the World Cup but for me a lot of rugby just blends. I don’t remember significant things but the 1995 World Cup game against England sticks in my mind.
I was 24 which is old in international rugby these days, but I was the kid in that All Blacks side. I can remember the lead-up to that game being so different to any other game I’d been involved in.
The senior players constantly worrying about everything and turning up at the ground they were almost frothing at the mouth and spitting and they were like these whole different beasts of players.
I knew my job as a player, but these guys must have reminded me about it maybe nine times in the week. To see that game executed the way it was, there’s so many different points to it.
Jonah Lomu running over Mike Catt, the try of the tournament was out of that game, there was something beautiful about that game.
You’re a big surfer, a bit of a dude. How did that go down throughout your career?
I tried to surf as much as I could. I tended not to do too much around game time but if there was an opportunity around the start of the week I was definitely sneaking out.
I don’t think they were too keen for me to be doing it because there was always a chance I could get injured. I cut my head open one Sunday after a Test leading into the following Test and I got a letter from the New Zealand Rugby Union telling me I was in breach of my contract, even though I wasn’t. They were saying I was participating in something out of the norm.
Only one Test did I surf right up until it through the whole week and that was against Australia in Manly. I was pumping because I’d been put on the bench by the coaching staff so I thought ‘f***you’ and went surfing all week and as it was I ended up coming on at half time and fixing all the things that weren’t working. So that was the last Test I was dropped for.
