Coroner Loses Patience With NZ Rugby Over Concussion Evidence in Christie and Guyton Inquest

A coroner in New Zealand has told New Zealand Rugby that its search for evidence in the deaths of two former Māori All Blacks was not good enough, and has ordered it to start again. Coroner Telford said he was losing patience with the exercise, and that he will not take the matter to inquest until all the evidence is on the file.

The men at the centre of the case are Shane Christie and Billy Guyton. Christie, 39, a former Highlanders and Māori All Blacks loose forward, died in August 2025. Guyton, 33, a former Māori All Blacks and Super Rugby halfback and a close friend of Christie, died in May 2023. Both deaths were reported as suspected suicides, and post-mortem examinations found chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head impacts. A 2025 review of 18 studies found an association between concussion and increased suicide risk. Scientists have yet to establish whether CTE itself raises that risk, though depression, behavioural changes and suicidal thoughts have been reported in people later diagnosed with it.

The two inquiries will now be merged into a joint inquest. NZR's lawyer, Tanzam Hossain, told the court the organisation had already provided more than 6000 documents across the two. Lawyers for the families and counsel assisting the coroner challenged how it had searched and what it had chosen to leave out.

Daniel Kalderimis, KC, who represents the Guyton family, said the world would be watching, pointing to an article about the two men in The Athletic, the New York Times sports publication. He noted that NZR told that outlet in September 2025 that staff from the organisation and the New Zealand Rugby Players Association had met with and supported current and former players, including Christie and Guyton. Yet when asked to identify those staff for the coroner, he said, NZR largely supplied names and contact details rather than gathering the relevant information. "So they were able to say to the New York Times … our staff did provide support. But now they say, we don't know. Here's just a list of people," he said.

He argued the inquest must establish how NZR handled concussion when the men were actually playing, not simply what its current policies say. He asked whether there was a precautionary approach, what it looked like and who carried it out. He said text messages had not been searched even though the issue was raised at an earlier hearing. He also criticised computer searches that used Guyton's first name but not his surname alone, and said documents created after Guyton's death in May 2023 had generally been excluded, even though NZR supplied its own more recent concussion policies. "You can't only provide the good stuff after that date," he said.

Hossain defended the process, saying electronic searches were the most practical way to find historical records given staff turnover, and that the search terms had been given to the court. Telford questioned how a court could specify what to search for when it cannot know what the organisation holds. He said the best way forward was for the exercise to be done again, completely.

The numbers framed his concern. NZR produced just 39 documents from its search, and had identified and reviewed another 1091 that it judged irrelevant. Those included research papers, studies, proposals, strategy material and board minutes on concussion management. Telford ordered them produced. The inquiry, he said, goes beyond which policies were in force: it will examine what NZR knew and understood about concussion risks, what information it had, what options it weighed, and how its policies were developed and put into practice. He rejected the idea that witness testimony could stand in for contemporaneous records, and said NZR's own view of relevance should not prevent production.

He also ordered a signed statement from a senior official setting out NZR's efforts to find and disclose material. NZR must establish whether staff and contractors, including medical personnel, had NZR-issued devices or phones on its plan, whether those can be searched, and where possible search them. Where documents cannot be produced, it must explain what it did to find them and why they are unavailable.

Privilege claims are also under review. NZR supplied schedules of withheld material, a 27-page list for Christie and a three-page list for Guyton. Kalderimis pointed to a December 2020 email from Players Association chief executive Rob Nichol to Paula Powlesland, whom he described as the All Blacks business manager, saying it was not obvious why it would be privileged. Hossain said Powlesland had been identified as one of NZR's in-house lawyers, but Telford noted that appearing on a list of lawyers does not itself establish privilege. Transparency, he said, is central, and the claims must be rigorously assessed. He also directed lawyers to clarify the Players Association's disclosure obligations.

No inquest date is set. The court sits again in February, and Telford warned that could bring another round of argument over disclosure. The Herald has approached NZR for comment.