Roy Christian

Fletcher Roy Christian MBE (born 10 October 1943) is a New Zealand former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1960s and 1970s. A centre, he captained New Zealand in the sport. Christian also captained the New Zealand Māori rugby league team.[2]

Roy Christian

MBE
Born
Fletcher Roy Christian

(1943-10-10) 10 October 1943
Auckland, New Zealand
Rugby league career
Playing information
PositionWing, Centre
Club
Years Team Pld T G FG P
19?? Otahuhu
Representative
Years Team Pld T G FG P
19?? Auckland
1964 New Zealand Māori
1965–72 New Zealand 32 5 0 0 15
Source: [1]

Early life and family

Christian was born in Auckland on 10 October 1943 to Norfolk Island parents, Leaonard Beaumont and Anna Matilda Christian.[3] He is a direct descendant of Fletcher Christian, a figure in the 1789 Mutiny on the Bounty.[2] He was educated at Otahuhu College and the University of Auckland.[3]

In 1966, Christian married Robyn Cheryl Plant, and the couple went on to have two children.[3]

Rugby league

Christian played his first Test match in 1965 against Australia. While playing for Otahuhu in 1966, Christian was awarded the Lipscombe Cup for Premier One sportsman of the year. However, injury caused him to miss the 1968 World Cup.[4] Christian was part of the Auckland side that defeated Australia in 1969.[5] He was appointed captain of the New Zealand national side in 1970 and played in that year's World Cup.[4] In 1971 Christian captained New Zealand to a famous victory against Australia at Carlaw Park.[6] Also in 1971, his Kiwis side became the first New Zealand touring team to win a test series in Britain.[7] The 1972 World Cup was the last time Christian represented New Zealand.[8] He retired with little fanfare as no test matches were scheduled for 1973.[4] He had played in 74 matches for the Kiwis, including 32 tests. After retirement Christian served as the Otahuhu Leopards chairman.

In the 1972 Queen's Birthday Honours, Christian was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to rugby league football.[9] In 2007, he was inducted as one of the New Zealand Rugby League's "Legends of League".[10]

Presbyterian minister

Christian studied at the Presbyterian School of Ministry at Knox College in Dunedin, and became a minister of the Presbyterian Church in 1984.[3][4]

gollark: - To increase the efficiency of the education system and encourage self-directed learning, I believe schools should lock children in individual cubicles with textbooks for 5 hours a day instead of using classrooms and teachers.
gollark: [POLITICAL VIEW] is utterly and objectively right, and all who disagree are enemies and will be subject to infinite quantities of bees.
gollark: The answer is 2, with a 150% margin of error.
gollark: It is not. As far as I know, the way it works (roughly) is that when you measure one thing in a pair, you know the other one must be in the other state; no way to transfer data that way unless you can already transfer the same amount of data to the other end.
gollark: So your issue is just flexible working hours?

References
  1. "Statistics at rugbyleagueproject.org". rugbyleagueproject.org. 31 December 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2018.
  2. Coffey, John; Wood, Bernie (2008). 100 years: Māori rugby league, 1908–2008. Huia. pp. 138–139. ISBN 9781869693312.
  3. Taylor, Alister; Coddington, Deborah (1994). Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand. Auckland: New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa. p. 98. ISBN 0-908578-34-2.
  4. Three Kiwi greats inducted into New Zealand Legends of League rleague.com, 17 April 2007
  5. 1969: Referee, and Kangaroos, crash Archived 2010-06-05 at the Wayback Machine Auckland Rugby League
  6. Jessup, Peter (23 April 2004). "Rugby League: Classic battles part of folklore". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  7. "Rugby League World Cup - Venues Guide". BBC Sport Online. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  8. "Christian, Fletcher Roy 1965–72 — Kiwi #435". nzleague.co.nz. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  9. "No. 45680". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 3 June 1972. p. 6294.
  10. "New Zealand Rugby League Annual Report 2008" (PDF). NZRL. 2008. Archived from the original (pdf) on 12 September 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2009.
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