Shane Christie

Early career

Born in the city of Palmerston North on New Zealand's North Island, Christie was raised in the town of Nelson, on the northern tip of South Island before moving to Wellington during his schooldays and attending school at Upper Hutt College just outside of Wellington. He headed back to Nelson after school and began working as a builder, a job he would have for 6 years prior to his rugby career really taking off in 2010. During this time, he played rugby for Nelson in Tasman's club rugby competition and also played Heartland Championship rugby with Buller in 2009.

Senior career

Christie first played senior provincial rugby with the Tasman Makos during the 2010 ITM Cup and scored 2 tries in 5 games as the men from Nelson finished 12th out of 14 teams on the log in the final season before the competition was rejigged to feature two divisions of 7 teams. He played all 10 games the following year as the Makos finished last in the Championship.

2012 was a more positive year for Tasman and it saw them finish 3rd in the Championship before going down 41-34 to Otago in the playoff semi-finals. Christie was again an ever-present, starting in 10 of 11 appearances and scoring 1 try. Following a promising season in 2012, the Makos gained promotion to the Premiership in 2013, finishing with 8 wins out of 10 regular season games before defeating Southland and Hawke's Bay in the semi-finals and final with Christie captaining the side and contributing 3 tries in 11 matches.

Tasman's upward trajectory continued through 2014 as they reached the Premiership final at the first time of asking before being defeated 36-32 by Taranaki in the final. Christie played 10 times and scored 1 try which saw him nominated for the ITM Cup Player of the Season award before going on to score 5 tries in 21 games across the 2015 and 2016 seasons as the Makos finished as losing semi-finalists and runners-up respectively.

Super Rugby

After several seasons of hard graft in New Zealand domestic rugby with Tasman, Christie finally earned a Super Rugby contract at the age of 28 with 7 times champions, the Crusaders ahead of the 2013 Super Rugby season. Unfortunately, due to fierce competition among a loose forward group that included Richie McCaw, Kieran Read and Matt Todd, he was only able to make a solitary appearance in what was to be his only season in Christchurch.

He headed south to Dunedin to join the Highlanders for 2014 and quickly established himself as a key component in their side, starting 14 times and scoring 2 tries as they reached the tournament quarter-finals before going down 31-27 to the Sharks in Durban. 2015 was to be a historic season for the franchise as they lifted the Super Rugby title for the first time in their history, defeating the Hurricanes 21-14 in the final. Christie missed a large chunk of the campaign because of a hamstring injury and had to kick his heels on the sidelines as his teammates achieved their success, playing only twice.

The Highlanders were unable to hold on to their Super Rugby crown in 2016, going down to the Lions 42-30 in Johannesburg in the quarter-finals, however a fit again Christie was named as the franchise's co-captain along with All Black Ben Smith and was able to feature 11 times through the year.

Tony Brown replaced the Japan bound Jamie Joseph as Highlanders head-coach ahead of the 2017 season and he retained Christie in the squad for his first season in charge.

International

Christie represented the All Blacks Sevens twice during the 2010–11 IRB Sevens World Series and has also turned out for the Māori All Blacks since 2012. He received his first call up for the Māori ahead of their UK tour in November 2012 and debuted in a 32-24 defeat to Leicester Tigers on 13 November 2012. He started the match and played the entire 80 minutes before earning a second cap 4 days later as a second-half replacement for Nick Crosswell in a 52-21 demolition of an RFU Championship XV while on 23 November he saw his first action against test match opposition in the shape of Canada who were overcome 32-19 in Oxford, England. He once again played the whole match in the blindside flanker position.

2013 saw him earn 2 more caps for the Māori in their North American tour victories over Canada and the United States, appearing as a second-half replacement for Luke Braid in the match against Canada in Toronto and playing the entire 80 minutes in the number 6 shirt against the USA in Pennsylvania.

Christie was again called up by the Māori ahead of their 2014 tour of Japan but had to withdraw due to injury, so it was after a gap of 3 years before he next pulled on the Black jersey, playing in matches against the USA, Munster and Harlequins and scoring his first international try in the 22nd minute of the 26-10 win over Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop.

Career Honours

All Blacks Sevens

Highlanders

Tasman

Super Rugby statistics