| Date of birth | 28 August 1985 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Palmerston North, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 27 August 2025 (aged 39) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Nelson, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 95 kg (14 st 13 lb; 209 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| School | Upper Hutt College | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Shane Christie (28 August 1985 – 27 August 2025) was a New Zealand rugby union player. Christie made appearances with Tasman, the Highlanders, and the Māori All Blacks. After repeated concussions ended his rugby career, he became an advocate for greater recognition of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
Born on 28 August 1985, [1] in Palmerston North, Christie was of Māori (Ngāti Kurawhatia and Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi) descent. [2] He was raised in Nelson, before moving to Wellington during his schooldays and attending school at Upper Hutt College. [3] He returned to Nelson after leaving school and began working as a builder, a job he would have for six years before breaking into top-level domestic rugby. [3] During this time, he played rugby for Nelson in Tasman's club rugby competition and also played Heartland Championship rugby with Buller in 2009. [4] [5]
Christie first played senior provincial rugby with the Tasman Mako during the 2010 ITM Cup and scored two tries in five games. The Nelson-based team finished 12th out of 14 teams in the final season before the competition was rejigged to feature two divisions of 7 teams. [6] He played all 10 games the following year as the Mako finished last in the Championship. [7]
2012 was a more positive year for Tasman and it saw them finish 3rd in the Championship before a 41–34 semi-final loss to Otago. [8] Christie was again ever-present, starting in 10 of 11 matches and scoring one try. [8] 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. [9] [10]
Tasman's upward trajectory continued through 2014 as they reached the Premiership final, being defeated 36-32 by Taranaki. [11] Christie played ten times and scored one try, earning a nomination for the ITM Cup Player of the Season. Across the 2015 and 2016 seasons he scored five tries in 21 games, with the Makos finishing as losing semi-finalists and runners-up respectively. [12] [13] [14]
After several seasons of domestic rugby with Tasman, Christie earned his first Super Rugby contract at the age of 28, spending the 2013 Super Rugby season with seven-time champions, the Crusaders. The team's loose forward group included All Blacks Richie McCaw, Kieran Read and Matt Todd, and Christie made a single appearance in what became his only season in Christchurch. [15] [16]
He headed south to Dunedin to join the Highlanders for 2014 and quickly established himself, starting 14 times and scoring two tries as they reached the tournament quarter-finals before losing 31–27 to the Sharks in Durban. [17] [18] Christie missed most of the 2015 season through injury. [19] It was an historic season for the franchise as they won their first Super Rugby title, beating the Hurricanes 21–14 in the final. [19]
In 2016 Christie was named Highlanders co-captain alongside All Black Ben Smith. He played 11 times through the season. [12] [14] The Highlanders were defeated in the second round of play-offs, losing 42-30 to the Lions in Johannesburg. Christie didn't play in the semi-final loss, having received multiple concussions throughout the season. [20] [21] At the team's end-of-season awards he was named the 2016 Community Champ. [22]
Christie was named in the squad by new coach Tony Brown ahead of the 2017 season, but he never played another game. Ongoing concussion symptoms kept Christie from the field all year, and he finally announced his retirement in May 2018. [23] [24] He had played 29 matches for the franchise. [25]
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. [26] [27] 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. [28] [29] He started the match and played the entire 80 minutes before earning a second cap four 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. [30] [31]
2013 saw him earn two 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 US in Pennsylvania. [32] [33]
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 US, Munster and Harlequins and scoring his first international try in the 22nd minute of the 26–10 win over Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop. [34] [35] [36]
Following his retirement, he became a assistant coach for the Tasman team which won premierships in 2019 and 2020. [37] Christie also coached the Tasman's women's team at the Farah Palmer Cup. For the 2021 and 2022 seasons he was the Highlanders' defence coach. [10]
Christie played his last match in 2016 and missed the entire 2017 season, never fully recovering from head injuries. [38] The team has reported a "mystery illness" at the time. [37] He officially ended his rugby career in 2018, at the age of 32, due to the effects of more concussions than he could remember. [10] The first had happened when he was a teenager, and at least ten were confirmed during his playing career. Those included three or four in the space of six weeks during Super Rugby 2016. By the end of his career he was unable to handle even "really light" contact in training. [20]
Christie spoke about living with concussion symptoms, including headaches, memory lapses, problems with his vision and speech, and mood swings, throughout the rest of his life. [25] [39]
Especially after the 2023 death of his friend and fellow rugby player Billy Guyton, Christie became a campaigner for greater recognition of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). His own symptoms worsened after Guyton's death, including "psychotic events" that winter. Guyton was posthumously confirmed to have CTE, a first in New Zealand rugby. Christie also believed himself to have CTE and was a founder of the Billy Guyton Foundation, which helps players with concussions. [10]
Like Guyton, Christie pledged to donate his brain to medical science. [39] [25] This would be the only way to confirm a diagnosis of CTE, which can only be detected post-mortem. [20]
Christie died in Nelson on 27 August 2025, the day before his 40th birthday. It was reported that his death was a suspected suicide, which will be referred to the coroner. [25] [40] Hundreds of people attended his funeral in Nelson on 2 September. [20]
All Blacks Sevens
Highlanders
Tasman
after the death of former New Zealand rugby player Shane Christie a day before his 40th birthday.
Shane Christie announced his retirement on Monday from concussion and Ainley said...'He has not played for a couple of years.'