Christie feeling at home with Makos
Finlay Christie’s conspicuous on a number of counts.
The shock of red hair is a given. Combine that with his Braveheart bearing and nuggety approach and the Tasman Makos’ new Scottishborn ginga has already become something of a talking point after just two rounds of Tasman’s national provincial championship rugby campaign.
He scored Tasman’s first try of the season in their first round win over Waikato in Blenheim and despite only tipping the scales at 80kg, the 20-year-old halfback has punched well above his weight.
Christie’s reputation has preceded him somewhat, having won the Hawkins Medal for his consistent performances in University’s No 9 jersey in this year’s Christchurch Metro Division One competition. So he’s been a nice fit for Tasman and Christie appears to be thriving in his new environment.
It’s clearly been a significant step up from the Christchurch club rugby scene.
‘‘The new rules are making it a bit different and it’s obviously a lot quicker,’’ Christie said of his new appointment. ‘‘But it’s been good, I’m enjoying it.’’
Born in Peebles in the Scottish Borders region, Christie moved to Pukekohe with his family as a seven-year-old and represented Counties Manukau at the national under-19 tournament in 2014. He then headed to University of Canterbury to begin a commerce degree and played a season of club rugby before being offered a contract to play for Tasman.
His impressive core body strength and physicality are a product of his sporting background, having previously been involved in gymnastics for nine years when he represented New Zealand at junior level.
He said that the years of gymnastics training had been good for his work ethic, although now he’s busy settling into the Tasman culture.
‘‘The first couple of weeks there was a lot to learn, but once you get past that, it flows on quite nicely.’’
Christie’s starting role against Waikato, ahead of Makos incumbent and Blues Super Rugby halfback Billy Guyton came as something as a shock.
‘‘It was a bit of a surprise when I got named against Waikato and again last week, it was pretty unexpected.’’
Despite his two starts, Christie said that he was still enjoying a healthy competitive relationship with the experienced Guyton.
‘‘I’m just trying to learn as much as I can off him. He helps me with heaps of stuff. We have a lot of sessions together with kicking and passing and stuff and he definitely knows a lot.’’
While Tasman were satisfied with their winning start to the season, last Sunday’s loss to a classy, formidable Canterbury team was an entirely different proposition.
‘‘We couldn’t really execute and didn’t get the ball we needed, but it’s probably better to get those games out of the way earlier in the season so that you can build from it. I’m sure we’ll come back better this week [against Taranaki].
‘‘The game went past really quick and I came off and realised I didn’t really do much.
‘‘We’ve said that one week won’t define us and we’ll have a solid week of training this week and put our best foot forward to get us a win on Saturday.’’
And as an amusing aside, Christie has now completely lost what he said was once a strong Scottish accent since moving to New Zealand.
‘‘I had [an accent], but I lost it quite quickly. I used to have quite a strong one. My mum still has videos of me as a kid...you wouldn’t think it was me.’’