{"id":101755,"date":"2025-08-28T08:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101755\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T08:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T08:49:11","slug":"tasman-rugby-boss-says-shane-christies-death-very-concerning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/101755\/","title":{"rendered":"Tasman Rugby boss says Shane Christie’s death ‘very concerning’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Mitchell, the Tasman Rugby chief executive, has described the recent death of Shane Christie as “devastating” and says the game must improve how it looks after its athletes.<\/p>\n

Christie, the former Tasman, Crusaders, Highlanders and New Zealand M\u0101ori player, was found dead yesterday <\/a>aged 39, in a suspected suicide. <\/p>\n

He had a history of concussions and was forced to retire from the game in 2018 as a result. He was a big advocate of the wellbeing of rugby players in their retirement following the sudden death of his friend Billy Guyton, a former Blues, Tasman and Southland player, in similar circumstances. <\/p>\n

Widespread grief over the loss of former Highlanders\u00a0flanker and Tasman NPC captain.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Guyton, a close friend and teammate, was found to have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in a brain study carried out following his death in 2023. He was the first professional New Zealand-based rugby player confirmed to have the disease.<\/p>\n

CTE is a degenerative brain disease that can currently only be diagnosed after death.<\/p>\n

Christie told 1News earlier this year he was worried he also had CTE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mitchell, who has been in his current role for just over 12 months, was also close to Guyton. “I\u2019m absolutely heartbroken for both of these lads,” he said.<\/p>\n

M\u0101ori All Black’s sudden death puts spotlight back on head knocks. Watch on TVNZ+<\/a> <\/p>\n

Mitchell said he was about to board a flight to Wellington when he heard the news via a phone call. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was instant shock to the whole community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew Shane really well. When I first started with the union in 2014, I was operations manager. Shane captained the side to winning the title in 2013 and continued to be the captain. <\/p>\n

\u201cI come from an amateur boxing background, and I was lucky enough to know some fairly combative athletes in my time. Shane was definitely ranked, in my book, up there with the best of them. An ultimate warrior. Hugely competitive and combative on the field but hugely gentle off it.<\/p>\n

\"Billy<\/p>\n

Billy Guyton (Source: Photosport)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s wider than Tasman rugby.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone who talked to Shane absolutely loved him. Everyone in the community is devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell said rather than apportioning blame or criticism, his and Tasman\u2019s focus was on Christie\u2019s wh\u0101nau.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut from Tasman Rugby\u2019s perspective this is concerning, very concerning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the second athlete [I have known] who has been through a very similar situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a medical professional and I don\u2019t really know [the details] but I do know the affects of consecutive concussions and it is a worrying trend. For the sport and wellbeing of our athletes there probably needs to be more done in this space.<\/p>\n

\u201cConcussion isn\u2019t singled out for rugby specifically. As a sporting nation, there perhaps needs to be more work across the board to ensure our children and participants are kept safe across the board.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019ve been involved in sport in 40 years and rule number one is care and protection of the athlete. It is important that we look into this and work out a way to serve our people.”<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/p>\n

Where to get help. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Swinburne University neurophysiologist Professor Alan Pearce was a friend of Christie. He said the former player was an \u201cabsolute advocate for bringing the issue of CTE and concussion in sports to the wider community\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cShane set up the Billy Guyton Foundation to raise awareness and funding for education and research.\u202f <\/p>\n

\u201cShane never backed down [from] talking about the issue, even when under pressure to not talk. He spoke to many experts from different areas, to understand the issue of CTE. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a personal perspective, Shane and I spoke quite regularly. He was always a beacon of positivity, encouraging me to keep pushing and to not give up when I missed out on research funding.\u202f <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such a shock to hear of Shane’s passing, and I will miss our chats, but his legacy will live on through his brain donation and through his advocacy via the Billy Guyton Foundation.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a statement following Christie\u2019s death, New Zealand Rugby said: \u201cWe share the deep sadness felt across the rugby community.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayer safety and wellbeing remain New Zealand Rugby\u2019s number one priority. We have taken, and will continue to take, a precautionary approach, with a clear focus on reducing and mitigating the risk of injury and exposure to head acceleration events at every level of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are committed to making rugby as safe as possible, and to leading globally in player welfare initiatives. This includes everything from law trials in community rugby, to workload management in the professional game, and ongoing investment in scientific research.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Mitchell, the Tasman Rugby chief executive, has described the recent death of Shane Christie as “devastating” and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85,73925],"class_list":{"0":"post-101755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tasman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}