Christie calls it quits
Alex Ainley is just glad Shane Christie has finally hung up his boots.
The 36-year-old lock has watched his Tasman and Highlanders team-mate attempt to battle back from concussion and resume his career since last year, a fight he officially quit after announcing his retirement on Monday.
Christie, whose last game of professional rugby was the 2016 Mitre 10 Cup final against Canterbury in Christchurch, will start his coaching career as Tasman’s forwards coach later this year.
Like other players who had their playing careers cut short by concussion, the former openside flanker declined an interview.
However, while Ainley didn’t offer specific details, he said it was a relief Christie had pulled the pin on his playing days.
"I have obviously been with him the last couple of years and played with him. I’ve seen what he’s been through and I don’t wish that on anyone. I’m glad he’s hung the boots up because I don’t want anything worse to happen to the guy. He’s a great guy.
"There’s still a lot of variables around concussion and we obviously don’t know a whole lot about it. So if they don’t know, it’s better to leave the guy out, I would have thought."
Christie was badly concussed playing for the Highlanders against the Kings in round 13 of the 2016 Super Rugby season, but did play three weeks later. He then captained Tasman in the NPC, playing 10 matches, including the 43-27 loss to Canterbury in the final.
But when the Highlanders fronted ahead of last year’s season-opener against the Chiefs, Christie was unavailable. Then head coach Tony Brown didn’t offer details, only that specialists were trying to get to the bottom of his "illness".
It dragged on all season. Christie never played.
But there was hope last May, when Tasman chief executive Tony Lewis said he was "very confident" Christie would play in last year’s NPC.
It didn’t transpire. Instead Christie was restricted to a nonplaying advisory role.
Lewis told Stuff yesterday that Christie didn’t want to speak to media because he was still coming to grips with his playing career being over, and he wanted to concentrate on his next chapter.
Having watched Christie get a taste of coaching last year, Ainley, like Tasman head coach Leon MacDonald, believes Christie’s coaching future is bright.
"He will go bloody good," Ainley said. "The coaches came and asked the leadership group if we wanted to keep him involved. We definitely did. He knows what he’s on about . . . he’ll go far, I think.
"He’s down to earth, he’s a similar age, he knows what the boys are on about, what gets them fired up and what gets them through to training. He brings the energy, which a lot of coaches, for better or worse, don’t have."
Ainley will join Tasman for another season after Super Rugby wraps up in August. He’s not yet sure if he’ll be back in Dunedin for a fifth season with the Highlanders next year.
"Well, the last four or five years it’s been one more. But the last four years they’ve offered me another contract at the end of the year. I’m enjoying it so I’ll keep doing it," he said. Pete Samu is reportedly poised to join the Brumbies next season and potentially be propelled into contention for the Wallabies as early as next month’s test series against Ireland.
The Crusaders flanker last week told Stuff he was ‘‘definitely considering his options’’ when asked about representing Australia ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup in Japan.
But the 26-year-old could soon be thrust into the international arena with the Wallabies hosting Ireland in three tests in June.
The Australian reports that Rugby Australia is seeking to invoke the ‘‘Brad Shields clause’’ to have Samu selected for the Wallabies squad in time for the international window.
Samu was born and raised in Melbourne, home of the Rebels, but it’s understood the Brumbies from Canberra are leading the race for his signature.
Hurricanes captain Shields was last Thursday named in England’s 34-man squad to tour South Africa when Eddie Jones’ side face the Springboks in three tests.
New Zealand Rugby announced they would by ‘‘special exception’’ free Shields to play for England and release him from the obligations of his contract. The 27-year-old loose forward qualifies to represent England through his English parents and he is joining Wasps after the Hurricanes’ Super Rugby campaign ends.
Samu, an Australian citizen, is off contract with the Crusaders at the end of this season and is being hotly pursued by Wallabies coach Michael Cheika.
He was briefly a member of the Waratahs training squad under then-coach Michael Foley but it wasn’t until he was invited to play for the Tasman province in 2014 by Tony Lewis, previously the boss of the Randwick club in Sydney and now the CEO of Tasman, that he considered a move from Australia.
‘‘I played in Sydney for two or three years. Then the coach of Tasman at the time, Kieran Keane, gave me a call to say there was an available spot there so I came across to Nelson,’’ Samu said. ‘‘I have no regrets, no way. I think New Zealand has given me the best opportunity with my rugby. Moving over has been the best thing I have done.’’