Christie stepping up for the Blues

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Top of the list was a stunning try achieved by his supporting nous having him in the perfect position from an in-pass from centre Rieko Ioane who made a crucial backline break. But there was also some outstanding defence.

When scoring his try he said after Ioane made his break he was telling him to go to the right and find the wing.

"I got a bit of a surprise when he chucked it to me, but from there I just closed the eyes and pinned the ears back," he said.

Beating four tacklers he said it was all a bit of a blur and once getting past the first defender he just ran as fast as he could.

"It turned out all right," he said.

As one of the players who wear it when a forward pack isn't going so well, he also benefits when they play well, and he said, at the moment while still a little patchy, it was good playing with the team performing at a higher consistency.

"I guess the positive is we put a patchy performance together and still score 40 or 50 points, so when we do get it right, it is going to be good.

"We had a lot of control out there, but at times when we didn't kick well when the set piece was under pressure, we sort of struggled and let them back in, but I think our defence is what held them out a lot, so that's a big ups to our D," he said.

Christie said he did have a slow start to the season while recovering from a neck injury that affected his passing, but improvement came with game time.

"I had the same injury last year and it was exactly the same sort of process. I took three or four games to get the feel back, and to get the strength and sharpness of my pass back, so, at least, I knew what was coming this year, and after a few games now I'm starting to build a bit of consistency which is pleasing," he said.

While it was his try that most caught the eye, Christie said he had been disappointed to miss a couple of tackles a week earlier, so it had been front of mind against the Brumbies, and he pulled off some impressive efforts during the game.

"I made a few out there, so I was pretty happy with it," he said.

He made 10 tackles in the game, headed only by 12 made by flanker Dalton Papalii, while he had a busy night in distribution firing out 56 passes compared to 39 from his Wallabies rival Nic White.