Kitch Christie

George Moir Christie, better known as Kitch Christie (31 January 1940 – 22 April 1998), was a South African rugby union coach best known for coaching the country's national team, the Springboks, to victory at the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He remained unbeaten during his tenure as Springbok rugby coach between 1994 and 1996, including leading the team to a then record 14 consecutive victories. In 2011, he was inducted posthumously into the IRB Hall of Fame, later subsumed into the World Rugby Hall of Fame, alongside all other Rugby World Cup-winning head coaches and captains through the 2007 edition.

Born in Johannesburg to a Scottish father and English mother, he was educated at Leith Academy in Edinburgh and the London Institute of Electronics. He picked up his lifelong nickname of "Kitch" from his fellow pupils, who named him after Don Kitchenbrand, a South African footballer with Rangers in the 1950s.

Christie returned to South Africa after his education, when he joined the Pretoria Harlequins club as a flanker. While his playing career was uneventful, it was during his time with the Harlequins that Christie began developing his coaching skills. It was the start of an enduring association with Quins—broken only by a spell as coach of the Glenwood Old Boys in Durban—during which he coached them to a number of trophies as well as serving as a Northern Transvaal selector.

In 1980, Christie spent the South African winter (Northern Hemisphere summer) in the United States, coaching the Chicago Lions club. Although he spent less than three months in Chicago, he made a lasting impact on the club, leading them to the Midwest regional crown.

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