Finlay Christie

Blues scrum-half Finlay Christie has been a fixture of New Zealand's professional half-back stocks since earning his first All Blacks Test cap in 2021. Born on 19 September 1994, the now 31-year-old combines Super Rugby experience in Auckland with an international résumé at the highest level of the game. Christie's calling card is pace of service and decision-making around the ruck. He plays with tempo, varies his box-kicking and passing game off a quick base, and brings a willingness to sniper-run around the fringe that makes him a threat close to the breakdown. His defensive reading is another strength, particularly in tracking runners around the set piece and ruck. At franchise level, he has been a long-standing option for the Blues in Super Rugby Pacific, providing reliable, quick-tempo half-back play that allows the side's forwards and outside backs to operate with rhythm. Competition for the All Blacks No. 9 jersey in the post-Aaron Smith era has been fierce, and Christie remains part of the national selection conversation when fit and in form. As a senior figure now in his early thirties, his role increasingly blends on-field production with the leadership a team leans on from an experienced scrum-half — organising the forwards, controlling territory, and setting the pace at which his side plays the game.