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Blues bolster halfback stocks with signing of Hurricanes back-up

Finlay Christie. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Tasman and Hurricanes halfback Finlay Christie will move back home to play for the Blues starting from the 2020 Super Rugby season.

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The 23-year-old, who is the back-up to TJ Perenara at the Hurricanes this year, has signed with the Blues for two years, joining Jonathan Ruru and Sam Nock who have both extended their contracts with the club.

The 23-year-old Christie, who was born in Peebles in the Scottish Borders, moved with his family to Pukekohe before attending Saint Kentigern College. He played for Counties Manukau U19 before heading to the University of Canterbury and after excelling at club level, took up a contract with the Tasman Mako in 2016.

His form with Tasman led to him playing eight games for the Chiefs in 2017 before moving to the Hurricanes the following year.

Christie’s move north will re-link him with Blues coach Leon MacDonald, who guided him at Tasman, where he will continue to play his Mitre 10 Cup rugby.

“I was impressed with his skill set and attitude at Tasman and now he gets the chance to return home to play,” Leon said.

“Finlay will complement both Sam and Jonathan and give us three quality halfbacks all with different styles and different strengths. This will allow us to select a halfback that best fits the game plan each week.”

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Blues high performance general manager, Tony Hanks is pleased with the signing.

“It is great to have a good mix of halfbacks, all now with experience and success at Mitre-10 Cup and Investec Super Rugby level,” said Tony.

“Sam has come through our system from the age grades and is now a senior player who has played a key part in the rise of Northland rugby, yet he is only 22 years old. He will reconnect with Christie after the pair played together at Saint Kentigerns.

“Jonathan has settled well with us since moving here last year and became a key part of the success for Auckland in the Mitre-10 Cup.”

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Flankly 2 hours ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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